-
2 June 2023. In the June 2023 issue of the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Alan Lester has published a relentlessly critical, fifteen-thousand-word-long ‘review’ of Nigel Biggar’s Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning. In his response, which appears in the same issue, Biggar reaches this conclusion: “there are only three minor points where [Lester’s] relentless barrage clearly hits…
-
22 May 2023. Nigel Biggar for The Hub. A look at the global historical context tells a more nuanced tale than black and white judgements allow for. Today the country is taking a statutory holiday in honour of Queen Victoria, the figure perhaps most emblematic of colonial empire. It requires a bit of cognitive dissonance given that…
-
14 May 2023. Nigel Biggar for The Sunday Telegraph. The UK did not play a unique role in the trade in human bondage, but it did in ending it. The clamour for reparations is growing louder. Last month, Laura Trevelyan announced that she is doing penance fro the sins of her slave-owning ancestors by giving…
-
23 April 2023. By Harry Clynch of Disruption Banking. ‘It’s clear that across culture, politics, and the media, an orthodox view of British colonialism has been established. The British Empire was a racist project which exploited its colonies for economic gain. Britain’s former colonies have never recovered from these crimes. Britain owes reparations to them as a result but can never…
-
17 April 2023. The Irish Times. Sir – In his review (March 31st), Marc Mulholland caricatures my book, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, when he reports that I “tell those aggrieved by imperial land-grabbing, discrimination and repression to stiffen the lip, look on the bright side, stop feeling sorry for themselves, and realise that was all for the…
-
14 April 2023. By Nigel Biggar for The Times. As brutal regimes flex their muscles, nationalists’ caricatures of the Empire burden Britain with an imaginary guilt What moves voters is often not the analysis of policies. When the think tank These Islands conducted a focus-group survey of the Scottish electorate in 2021, it discovered that…
-
1 March 2023. Nigel wrote an article for issue 14 of Aspects of History, a multi-platform periodical founded and edited by Oliver Webb-Carter. Aspects of History believes that ‘history should be both championed and challenged, disseminated and debated’. You can find Nigel’s article through the link below. Do make sure to subscribe to Aspects of…
-
The call for the restitution of museum artefacts on the grounds of ‘colonial guilt’ is based on a misreading of history Article by Nigel Biggar for The Telegraph. 28 January 2023. That those who do an injustice should rectify it, is moral common sense. No one disputes that Germany’s post-1945 government should have restored stolen…
-
Nigel Biggar: In celebrating people, we admire them only for some things they’ve done ‘Ireland’s famous 18th century philosopher, George Berkeley, was guilty of racial prejudice and slave – owning. He once described the Irish poor as “a lazy destitute race” and he bought a slave plantation on Rhode Island. Since the Irish today deplore both racism and slavery, shouldn’t…
-
My run-in with the Rhodes Must Fall movement shows how little appetite there is for nuanced discussion of colonialism. Instead, activists are driven by hatred of the Anglo-American liberal world order, writes Nigel Biggar ‘It was early December 2017 and my wife and I were at Heathrow airport, waiting to board a flight to Germany.…