Race and the Undeserving Poor: From Abolition to Brexit(Building Progressive Alternatives)

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Matthew Watson1. Introduction2. English poor laws and Caribbean slavery3 Anglo-Saxon empire and the residuum4. National welfare and colonial development5. Commonwealth labour and the white working class6. Social conservatism and the white underclass7. Brexit and the return of the white working class8. Conclusion: Brexit, viewed from Grenfell Tower

About the Author :
Robbie Shilliam is Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He was previously Professor of International Relations at Queen Mary University of London.

Review :
Politically uncertain times require rigorous and judicious scholarship and, with this superbly argued book, Robbie Shilliam provides just that. The UK’s vote to leave the European Union has prompted a reconsideration of ideas of (national) belonging and of class. Shilliam eviscerates standard accounts that seek to locate the emergence of the ‘white working class’ in national terms and presents a brilliantly compelling account of why this emergence is better understood in terms of the postcolonial genealogy of British Empire. A vital, necessary book to make sense of our present. A milestone in political science and cultural studies ... Shilliam’s account of the racialisation of the ‘undeserving poor’ offers a systemic critique of how whiteness excuses politics from the difficult task of anti-capitalist internationalism ... accessibly introduces concepts that shed light on how whiteness is made by blackening. Each of these concepts packs an intricate but straightforward story about the internationalisation of British capital. ... a detailed and sharp analysis of the racialization of those deemed 'undeserving' in British society. It places the emergence of the 'white working class', which was such a dominant category in debates around Brexit, within the broader historical context of the British Empire ... this 'white working class' imaginary persists in spite of the fact that the British working class are not homogenously white, and notably, that those who su?er most under austerity are Black and minority ethnic communities ... provides an important analytical framework for us to begin to understand contemporary debates around nationalism and belonging.