Bernard Porter

Bernard Porter’s recent books include Imperial Britain: What the Empire Wasn’t and Empire Ways. He lives in Stockholm.

In the LRB Archive:

• What Europeans Talk about when They Talk about Brexit · 3 January 2019

• Send more blondes: Spies in the Congo · 20 October 2016

  • Spies in the Congo: The Race for the Ore that Built the Atomic Bomb by Susan Williams

• Who was the enemy?: Gallipoli · 21 May 2015

  • Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead
  • Gallipoli: A Soldier’s Story by Arthur Beecroft
  • Gallipoli 1915 by Joseph Murray
  • Gallipoli: The Dardanelles Disaster in Soldiers’ Words and Photographs by Richard van Emden and Stephen Chambers

• How bad are we?: Genocide in Tasmania · 31 July 2014

  • The Last Man: A British Genocide in Tasmania by Tom Lawson

• Too Glorious for Words: Lawrence in Arabia · 3 April 2014

  • Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson

• Iniquity in Romford: Black Market Britain · 23 May 2013

  • Black Market Britain 1939-55 by Mark Roodhouse

• Quiet Sinners: Imperial Spooks · 21 March 2013

  • Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War and the Twilight of Empire by Calder Walton

• Manly Voices: Macaulay & Son · 22 November 2012

  • Macaulay and Son: Architects of Imperial Britain by Catherine Hall

• Rotten, Wicked, Tyrannical: The Meek Assassin · 5 July 2012

  • Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die: The Assassination of a British Prime Minister by Andro Linklater

• Wild Enthusiasts: Science in Africa · 10 May 2012

  • Africa as a Living Laboratory: Empire, Development and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge, 1870-1950 by Helen Tilley

• What Nanny Didn’t Tell Me: Simon Mann · 26 January 2012

  • Cry Havoc by Simon Mann

• Where is this England?: The Opium War · 3 November 2011

  • The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell

• All about the Beef: The Food War · 14 July 2011

  • The Taste of War: World War Two and the Battle for Food by Lizzie Collingham

• Still Their Fault: The AK-47 · 6 January 2011

  • The Gun: The AK-47 and the Evolution of War by C.J. Chivers

• Thank God for Traitors: GCHQ · 18 November 2010

  • GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain’s Most Secret Intelligence Agency by Richard Aldrich

• ‘We’re Not Jittery’: Monitoring Morale · 8 July 2010

  • Listening to Britain: Home Intelligence Reports on Britain’s Finest Hour May-September 1940 edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy Crang

• Pariahs Can’t Be Choosers: Israel, South Africa and the Bomb · 24 June 2010

  • The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa by Sasha Polakow-Suransky

• Regret is a shabby thing: Knut Hamsun · 27 May 2010

  • Knut Hamsun: Dreamer and Dissenter by Ingar Sletten Kolloen, translated by Deborah Dawkin and Erik Skuggevik
  • Knut Hamsun: The Dark Side of Literary Brilliance by Monika Zagar

• Other People’s Mail: MI5 · 19 November 2009

  • The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5 by Christopher Andrew

• Mule Races and Pillow Fights: Churchill’s Failings · 27 August 2009

  • Warlord: A Life of Churchill at War, 1874-1945 by Carlo D’Este

• ‘This is Africa, after all. What can you expect?’: Corruption and Post-Imperialism · 26 March 2009

  • It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower by Michela Wrong

• It Just Sounded Good: Lady Hester Stanhope · 23 October 2008

  • Star of the Morning: The Extraordinary Life of Lady Hester Stanhope by Kirsten Ellis

• Friendly Fire: Torching the White House · 21 February 2008

  • Fusiliers: Eight Years with the Redcoats in America by Mark Urban
  • 1812: War with America by Jon Latimer

• Trying to Make Decolonisation Look Good: The End of Empire · 2 August 2007

  • Britain’s Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonisation, 1918-68 by Ronald Hyam
  • The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire by Peter Clarke
  • Forgotten Wars: The End of Britain’s Asian Empire by Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper

• Did he puff his crimes to please a bloodthirsty readership?: How bad was Stanley? · 5 April 2007

  • Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal

• Nobbled or Not: the Central African Federation · 25 May 2006

  • British Documents on the End of Empire Series B Vol. 9: Central Africa: Part I: Closer Association 1945-58 by Philip Murphy
  • British Documents on the End of Empire Series B Vol. 9: Central Africa: Part II: Crisis and Dissolution 1959-65 by Philip Murphy

• Palmerstonian: The Falklands War · 20 October 2005

  • The Official History of the Falklands Campaign. Vol. I: The Origins of the Falklands War by Lawrence Freedman
  • The Official History of the Falklands Campaign. Vol. II: War and Diplomacy by Lawrence Freedman

• How did they get away with it?: Britain’s Atrocities in Kenya · 3 March 2005

  • Histories of the Hanged: Britain’s Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire by David Anderson
  • Britain’s Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya by Caroline Elkins

• Not the Brightest of the Barings: Lord Cromer, a Victorian Ornamentalist in Egypt · 18 November 2004

  • Lord Cromer: Victorian Imperialist, Edwardian Proconsul by Roger Owen

• Strew the path with flowers: cannabis and empire · 4 March 2004

  • Cannabis Britannica: Empire, Trade and Prohibition 1800-1928 by James Mills

• So Much to Hate: Rudyard Bloody Kipling · 25 April 2002

  • The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling by David Gilmour

• Over Several Tops: Winston Churchill · 14 January 2002

  • Churchill: A Study in Greatness by Geoffrey Best
  • Churchill by Roy Jenkins

• More Interesting than Learning how to Make Brandy Snaps: Stella Rimington · 18 October 2001

  • Open Secret: The Autobiography of the Former Director-General of MI5 by Stella Rimington

• How the Judges Stood in the Way of Socialism · 1 June 2000

  • The Struggle for Civil Liberties: Political Freedom and the Rule of Law in Britain 1914-1945 by K.D. Ewing and C.A. Gearty

• Boarder or Day Boy?: secrecy in Britain · 15 July 1999

  • The Culture of Secrecy in Britain 1832-1998 by David Vincent

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