"African and Caribbean People in Britain" by Adi provides a comprehensive historical overview of a significant community's journey. The book meticulously navigates struggles, achievements, and cultural contributions. While dense at times, its wealth of information makes it an indispensable resource for understanding this vital aspect of British history.

An achievement in history writing and a new landmark text in British history. Expertly researched, authoritative and enlightening, can't recommend enough.

This really is a tour de force and a lifetime’s work (well, he’s published other books, so not quite that), drawing on hundreds and hundreds of sources (20% of the book is the references) to describe the arrival and experiences of people from the Caribbean and Africa over the millennia, from prehistory and early history (yes, Cheddar Man and Ivory Bangle Woman, but also others I hadn’t encountered previously) right up until the Windrush Scandal and Black Lives Matter. Adi does offer quotations but it’s not as thick with them as other history books I’ve read recently.

In the introduction to the book, Adi references Gretchen Gerzina’s work on Black Georgians (read and reviewed here) but not the book on Black Victorians I recently read (which does reference this and Gerzina). I would say that it might be a mistake to read all three books close together as I ended up duplicating information on the (long) 18th and 19th centuries I’d read in more detail in the other two books. There is also a lot on Pan-Africanism, which is Adi’s area of specialism – there were a lot of names and organisations coming and going in those sections especially, but I do know where to come if I need information on Pan-Africanism!

Adi is careful throughout to see the agency in the people he’s writing about, as well as describing the mechanisms of slavery as people-trafficking, bringing history into the reader’s mind as being allied to things that happen now. He makes sure to weave in women’s stories and acknowledge the work women have done in grass-roots work, publishing and awareness-raising and has some passages on Black feminism. He’s also meticulous in observing how history gets/got lost, for example, the researchers at the Museum of London who admit that anecdotal evidence of Black bodies found in burials wasn’t recorded properly and now they are wiped out of the record.

There was of course a lot I didn’t know here – for example that Black people were transported to Australia and details of more racist disturbances in 1919 than the Liverpool and Cardiff ones a lot of us have heard of. We also learn a lot more detail about the colour bar in the forces in the two world wars. Throughout the book we find reproductions of pictures and newspaper pages which add a lot to the text – I particularly liked one of 1970s Handsworth. A very valuable resource that will find a happy place in academic libraries but is also approachable and readable enough for the general reader.

I couldn’t wait to read African and Caribbean people in Britain in this book they talked about Black people being freed from slavery and the great things they were known to do and the horrible things that went on to be done to them. The whole time reading this book all I could do is compare it to the history I know in America and I must say I have a Lotta respect for Britain as a country now. for example a lot of the freedmen and those born free went on to marry local women a.k.a. “white women.“ it saddens me to say that in America one or both of them would’ve been killed, probably by lynching. It wasn’t just that though another guy was voted to be president of the Taylors in a bill he proposed got 2/3 of the boat in the country. They had farmers, pub owners those who own boarding houses but most of them went on to be in the Navy awesome type of boat worker. That’s not to say it was all Rosie just like in America as time went on there would be“Riots“ a.k.a. black man being attacked an the end it would only be the black men who got arrested. These are just a few stories in the book and they had many many more. His book was longer than the normal non-fiction books I read, but I loved it. Not to say I love hearing about the atrocities visited on these people I loved the history of it I love hearing about the first black millionaire and all those who went on to be successful despite the place and time they Lipton. I highly recommend this book a few want to know more about The history of black men in Britain you definitely should read this book. I was given this book by net galley and penguin press classics but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.