James Mcconnachie

A Labour MP defends the Empire – and only quotes Lenin twice

A review of Ten Cities that Made an Empire, by Tristram Hunt. A well-written and cleverly constructed new history of the urban engine rooms of the British Empire

English tea-chests are thrown into Boston harbour, 16 December 1773 [Getty Images/Shutterstock/iStock/Alamy] 
issue 14 June 2014

In a grand history of the British empire — because that is what this book really is —  you might expect more hand-wringing from a historian and Labour MP who has previously written a life of Engels. But despite quoting Marx half a dozen times (and Lenin, twice!) there is something about the idea of empire that excites Tristram Hunt.

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