Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire

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“A remarkable account of Britain’s last stand in Kenya. That is imperial history at its very best.”–John Hope Franklin

In “a gripping narrative that may be all but not possible to put down” (Joseph C. Miller), Histories of the Hanged exposes the long-hidden colonial crimes of the British in Kenya. This groundbreaking work tells how the brutal war between the colonial government and the insurrectionist Mau Mau between 1952 and 1960 dominated the final bloody decade of imperialism in East Africa. The usage of bizarre new evidence, David Anderson puts the colonial government on trial with eyewitness testimony from over 800 court cases and in the past unseen archives. His research exonerates the Kikuyu rebels; hardly the terrorists they were considered; and reveals the British to be brutal aggressors in a “dirty war” that involved leaders on the highest ranks of the British government. This astonishing piece of scholarship portrays a teetering colonial empire in its final phase; employing no matter what military and propaganda methods it might to preserve an order that could no longer hold.

“A remarkable account of Britain’s last stand in Kenya. That is imperial history at its very best.”–John Hope Franklin

In “a gripping narrative that may be all but not possible to put down” (Joseph C. Miller), Histories of the Hanged exposes the long-hidden colonial crimes of the British in Kenya. This groundbreaking work tells how the brutal war between the colonial government and the insurrectionist Mau Mau between 1952 and 1960 dominated the final bloody decade of imperialism in East Africa. The usage of bizarre new evidence, David Anderson puts the colonial government on trial with eyewitness testimony from over 800 court cases and in the past unseen archives. His research exonerates the Kikuyu rebels; hardly the terrorists they were considered; and reveals the British to be brutal aggressors in a “dirty war” that involved leaders on the highest ranks of the British government. This astonishing piece of scholarship portrays a teetering colonial empire in its final phase; employing no matter what military and propaganda methods it might to preserve an order that could no longer hold.

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