Fighting for Britain - Killingray, David

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Résumé :
Introduction Africa 1939 Recruiting Army life Indiscipline, strike & mutiny War Going home & demobilisation Ex-servicemen & politics The social impact of war service Postscript...

Biographie:
David Killingray...

Sommaire:
During the Second World War over half-a-million African troops served with the British Army as combatants and non-combatants - the largest single movement of African men overseas since the slave trade. This account, based mainly on oral evidence and soldiers' letters, tells the story of the African experience of the war. It is a 'history from below' that describes how men were recruited for a war about which most knew very little....

REVIEWS OF THE CLOTH EDITION Sober and judicious but also thrilling and dramatic. AFRICA Will become the one-stop reference for research on Anglophone Africa and its soldiers during World War II. (...) Killingray succeeds in putting human faces on some of the nearly one million African soldiers who laboured and fought. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORICAL STUDIES It is a pleasure to turn the pages of this new book. (...) For those new to the subject matter, the volume offers an incomparable access point, allowing them to pursue their studies through the extensive bibliography and the themes that the book divides the subject into. (...) Will be the standard work on the subject for years, probably decades to come, an entirely fitting pedestal given David Killingray's leadership in this field. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Of particular interest is (the author's) challenge to the conventional wisdom that returning soldiers were the vanguard of independence movements. Killingray eschews postcolonial theories and anchors himself to archival and literary evidence, making this book accessible to a wide audience. Recommended. CHOICE The most comprehensive work attempted on the subject thus far. (...) This book addresses issues which will not only appeal to African specialists, and military and imperial historians, but should interest many social, political, cultural, transnational and economic historians too in assessing the far-reaching impact of arguably the pivotal event of the 20th century. REVIEWS IN HISTORY (A)n impressive synthesis of primary and secondary sources on Africans' contributions to the British Second World War effort. (...) It is replete with first-hand examples and voices from African men and draws upon a formidable range of materials and sources. PAMBAZUKA NEWS A well written book that makes a valuable contribution and should be read by anyone interested in the Second World War, Africa and/or race and military service. JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY A ground-breaking book which reveals as much about the imperial British as it does about their African subjects. NORTH SOUTH David Killingray's fascinating new book sets out in compelling prose and finely researched detail the extraordinary story of Africa's stalwart and generous support of the Empire's most perilous of wars. TLS A must for those undertaking historical research. SOLDIER MAGAZINE