This book argues that the rising tide of anti-colonialism after the 1930s should be considered a turning point not just in harnessing a new mood or feeling of unity, but primarily as one that viewed empire, racism, and economic degradation as part of a system that fundamentally required the application of strategy to their destruction.

Leslie James is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham. Prior to this, she was Lecturer in World History at the University of Cambridge. Other publications include the forthcoming volume, Decolonization and the Cold War: Negotiating Independence, co-edited with Elisabeth Leake.