The best books about colonialism and imperialism

The best books about colonialism and imperialism

Originally published: Book Scrolling (January 24, 2018)   | 
“What are the best books about Colonialism and Imperialism?” We looked at 254 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 29 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Colonialism & Imperialism” book lists are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 200+ titles, as well as the sources we used to make the list are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown29. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Goodreads 2
Immediately recognized as a revelatory and enormously controversial book since its first publication in 1971, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is universally recognized as one of those rare books that forever changes the way its subject is perceived. Now repackaged with a new introduction from bestselling author Hampton Sides to coincide with a major HBO dramatic film of the book, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.


28. Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II by Madhusree Mukerjee

Lists It Appears On: Wikipedia, Goodreads
A dogged enemy of Hitler, resolute ally of the Americans, and inspiring leader through World War II, Winston Churchill is venerated as one of the truly great statesmen of the last century. But while he has been widely extolled for his achievements, parts of Churchill’s record have gone woefully unexamined.
As journalist Madhusree Mukerjee reveals, at the same time that Churchill brilliantly opposed the barbarism of the Nazis, he governed India with a fierce resolve to crush its freedom movement and a profound contempt for native lives. A series of Churchill’s decisions between 1940 and 1944 directly and inevitably led to the deaths of some three million Indians. The streets of eastern Indian cities were lined with corpses, yet instead of sending emergency food shipments Churchill used the wheat and ships at his disposal to build stockpiles for feeding postwar Britain and Europe.


27. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Goodreads 2
From the author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, comes an exposé of international corruption, and an inspired plan to turn the tide for future generations
With a presidential election around the corner, questions of America’s military buildup, environmental impact, and foreign policy are on everyone’s mind. Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins goes behind the scenes of the current geopolitical crisis and offers bold solutions to our most pressing problems. Drawing on interviews with other EHMs, jackals, CIA operatives, reporters, businessmen, and activists, Perkins reveals the secret history of events that have created the current American Empire


26. Empire by Antonio Negri, Michael Hardt

Lists it appears on: Ranker, Wikipedia
Imperialism as we knew it may be no more, but Empire is alive and well. It is, as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negridemonstrate in this bold work, the new political order of globalization. It is easy to recognize the contemporary economic, cultural, and legal transformations taking place across the globe but difficult to understand them. Hardt and Negri contend that they should be seen in line with our historical understanding of Empire as a universal order that accepts no boundaries or limits. Their book shows how this emerging Empire is fundamentally different from the imperialism of European dominance and capitalist expansion in previous eras. Rather, today’s Empire draws on elements of U.S. constitutionalism, with its tradition of hybrid identities and expanding frontiers. Empire identifies a radical shift in concepts that form the philosophical basis of modern politics, concepts such as sovereignty, nation, and people. Hardt and Negri link this philosophical transformation to cultural and economic changes in postmodern society―to new forms of racism, new conceptions of identity and difference, new networks of communication and control, and new paths of migration. They also show how the power of transnational corporations and the increasing predominance of postindustrial forms of labor and production help to define the new imperial global order. More than analysis, Empire is also an unabashedly utopian work of political philosophy, a new Communist Manifesto. Looking beyond the regimes of exploitation and control that characterize today’s world order, it seeks an alternative political paradigm―the basis for a truly democratic global society.


25. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

Lists it appears on: Thought Catalog, Goodreads
In this “artful, informative, and delightful” (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion –as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war –and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California’s Gold Medal.


24. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Lists it appears on: The Horseshoe Nail, Goodreads
With effortless grace, celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy who works for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor’s beautiful young mistress who has abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna’s willful twin sister Kainene. Half of a Yellow Sun is a tremendously evocative novel of the promise, hope, and disappointment of the Biafran war.


23. Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky

Lists it appears on: Ranker, Goodreads 2
An immediate national bestseller, Hegemony or Survival demonstrates how, for more than half a century the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Our leaders have shown themselves willing-as in the Cuban missile crisis-to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks. World-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this perilous moment and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species.
With the striking logic that is his trademark, Chomsky tracks the U.S. government’s aggressive pursuit of “”full spectrum dominance”” and vividly lays out how the most recent manifestations of the politics of global control-from unilateralism to the dismantling of international agreements to state terrorism-cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens our existence. Lucidly written, thoroughly documented, and featuring a new afterword by the author, Hegemony or Survival is a definitive statement from one of today’s most influential thinkers.


22. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Goodreads 2
Before a bomb ended his life in the summer of 1980, Walter Rodney had created a powerful legacy. This pivotal work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, had already brought a new perspective to the question of underdevelopment in Africa. His Marxist analysis went far beyond the heretofore accepted approach in the study of Third World underdevelopment. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is an excellent introductory study for the student who wishes to better understand the dynamics of Africa s contemporary relations with the West.


21.Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest by Anne McClintock

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Goodreads 2
Imperial Leather chronicles the dangerous liaisons between gender, race and class that shaped British imperialism and its bloody dismantling. Spanning the century between Victorian Britain and the current struggle for power in South Africa, the book takes up the complex relationships between race and sexuality, fetishism and money, gender and violence, domesticity and the imperial market, and the gendering of nationalism within the zones of imperial and anti-imperial power.


20. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, The Horseshoe Nail
Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.
This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Twenty-five years after its publication, Midnight’ s Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.


19. Naked Imperialism by John Bellamy Foster

Lists it appears on: Ranker, Wikipedia
During the Cold War years, mainstream commentators were quick to dismiss the idea that the United States was an imperialist power. Even when U.S. interventions led to the overthrow of popular governments, as in Iran, Guatemala, or the Congo, or wholesale war, as in Vietnam, this fiction remained intact. During the 1990s and especially since September 11, 2001, however, it has crumbled. Today, the need for American empire is openly proclaimed and defended by mainstream analysts and commentators.
John Bellamy Foster’s Naked Imperialism examines this important transformation in U.S. global policy and ideology, showing the political and economic roots of the new militarism and its consequences both in the global and local context. Foster shows how U.S.-led global capitalism is preparing the way for a new age of barbarism and demonstrates the necessity for resistance and solidarity on a global scale.


18. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Lists it appears on: Boston University, Goodreads
A modern classic in the African literary canon and voted in the Top Ten Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, this novel brings to the politics of decolonization theory the energy of women’s rights. An extraordinarily well-crafted work, this book is a work of vision. Through its deft negotiation of race, class, gender and cultural change, it dramatizes the ‘nervousness’ of the ‘postcolonial’ conditions that bedevil us still. In Tambu and the women of her family, we African women see ourselves, whether at home or displaced, doing daily battle with our changing world with a mixture of tenacity, bewilderment and grace.


17. Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Lists it appears on: Five Books, Goodreads
The puzzling murder of three African directors of a foreign-owned brewery sets the scene for this fervent, hard-hitting novel about disillusionment in independent Kenya. A deceptively simple tale, Petals of Blood is on the surface a suspenseful investigation of a spectacular triple murder in upcountry Kenya. Yet as the intertwined stories of the four suspects unfold, a devastating picture emerges of a modern third-world nation whose frustrated people feel their leaders have failed them time after time.
First published in 1977, this novel was so explosive that its author was imprisoned without charges by the Kenyan government. His incarceration was so shocking that newspapers around the world called attention to the case, and protests were raised by human-rights groups, scholars, and writers, including James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Donald Barthelme, Harold Pinter, and Margaret Drabble.


16. The Age of Empire, 1875-1914 by Eric Hobsbawm

Lists it appears on: Goodreads 2, Wikipedia
Erica Hobsbawm discusses the evolution of European economics, politics, arts, sciences, and cultural life from the height of the industrial revolution to the First World War. Hobsbawm combines vast erudition with a graceful prose style to re-create the epoch that laid the basis for the twentieth century.





15. The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding by Robert Hughes

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Thought Catalog
Digging deep into the dark history of England’s infamous efforts to move 160,000 men and women thousands of miles to the other side of the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Hughes has crafted a groundbreaking, definitive account of the settling of Australia.
Tracing the European presence in Australia from early explorations through the rise and fall of the penal colonies, and featuring 16 pages of illustrations and 3 maps, The Fatal Shore brings to life the incredible true history of a country we thought we knew.


14. The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Goodreads 2
The Great Game between Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia was fought across desolate terrain from the Caucasus to China, over the lonely passes of the Parmirs and Karakorams, in the blazing Kerman and Helmund deserts, and through the caravan towns of the old Silk Road—both powers scrambling to control access to the riches of India and the East. When play first began, the frontiers of Russia and British India lay 2000 miles apart; by the end, this distance had shrunk to twenty miles at some points. Now, in the vacuum left by the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there is once again talk of Russian soldiers “dipping their toes in the Indian Ocean.


13. The Scramble for Africa: The White Man’s Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 by Thomas Pakenham

Lists it appears on: Five Books, Goodreads
From the rear cover of this 738 page book: “A phenomenal achievement, clear, authoritative and compelling……Thomas Pakenham’s fine book tells the story of this particular gold rush with admirable and judicious poise….Contains some of the best-known episodes of 19th-Century history as well as some of the most mythologized and colorful characters the world has ever seen…..Livingstone and Stanley, Brazza and Rhodes, Kitchener and Gordon, Lugard and Jameson…..Highly readable.” and “Taking the entire continent as his canvas, Pakenham has painted a picture of heroism and horror. He writes both with compassion and with an effective combination of detachment and judgement. A splendid book.


12. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Goodreads 2
In this groundbreaking alternative history of the most dominant ideology of our time, Milton Friedman’s free-market economic revolution, Naomi Klein challenges the popular myth of this movement’s peaceful global victory. From Chile in 1973 to Iraq today, Klein shows how Friedman and his followers have repeatedly harnessed terrible shocks and violence to implement their radical policies. As John Gray wrote in The Guardian, “There are very few books that really help us understand the present. The Shock Doctrine is one of those books.”


11. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, The Guardian
India, 1857—the year of the Great Mutiny, when Muslim soldiers turned in bloody rebellion on their British overlords. This time of convulsion is the subject of J. G. Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur, widely considered one of the finest British novels of the last fifty years.
Farrell’s story is set in an isolated Victorian outpost on the subcontinent. Rumors of strife filter in from afar, and yet the members of the colonial community remain confident of their military and, above all, moral superiority. But when they find themselves under actual siege, the true character of their dominion—at once brutal, blundering, and wistful—is soon revealed.


10. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Goodreads 2
A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon’s masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said’s Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of postindependence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other. Fanon’s analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.


9. Burmese Days by George Orwell

Lists it appears on: The Horseshoe Nail, Goodreads, Goodreads 2
Orwell draws on his years of experience in India to tell this story of the waning days of British imperialism. A handful of Englishmen living in a settlement in Burma congregate in the European Club, drink whiskey, and argue over an impending order to admit a token Asian.





8. Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Lists it appears on: Wikipedia, Goodreads, Goodreads 2
In 1916 in the midst of the First World War Lenin produced a Marxist masterpiece, entitled “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism”. With US imperialism extending its domination over the whole of the world, this book is more relevant than ever. Eighty years after Lenin’s death we publish an appraisal of this classic work.…
In the preface written in April 1917, Lenin hoped that the “pamphlet will help the reader to understand the fundamental economic question, that of the economic essence of imperialism, for unless this is studied, it will be impossible to understand and appraise modern war and modern politics.” —Rob Sewell, “Imperialism and the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” In Defense of Marxism, December 16, 2004.



7. Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Goodreads 2, The Guardian
This novel tells the story of Kimball O’ Hara (Kim), who is the orphaned son of a soldier in the Irish regiment stationed in India during the British Raj. It describes Kim’s life and adventures from street vagabond, to his adoption by his father’s regiment and recruitment into espionage.




6. King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild

Lists it appears on: Goodreads, Goodreads 2, Thought Catalog
In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold Ii of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million–all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold’s Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold Ii. With great power and compassion, King Leopold’s Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo–too long forgotten–onto the conscience of the West.


5. Orientalism by Edward Said

Lists it appears on: Ranker, Goodreads, Goodreads 2
More than three decades after its first publication, Edward Said’s groundbreaking critique of the West’s historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East has become a modern classic.
In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of “”orientalism”” to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined “”the orient”” simply as “”other than”” the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding. Essential, and still eye-opening, Orientalism remains one of the most important books written about our divided world.


4. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

Lists it appears on: The Horseshoe Nail, Goodreads, Goodreads 2, The Guardian
Among the greatest novels of the twentieth century and the basis for director David Lean’s Academy Award-winning film, A Passage to India tells of the clash of cultures in British India after the turn of the century. In exquisite prose, Forster reveals the menace that lurks just beneath the surface of ordinary life, as a common misunderstanding erupts into a devastating affair.




3. Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said

Lists it appears on: Ranker, Wikipedia, Goodreads, Goodreads 2
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as the Western powers built empires that stretched from Australia to the West Indies, Western artists created masterpieces ranging from Mansfield Park to Heart of Darkness and Aida. Yet most cultural critics continue to see these phenomena as separate. Edward Said looks at these works alongside those of such writers as W. B. Yeats, Chinua Achebe, and Salman Rushdie to show how subject peoples produced their own vigorous cultures of opposition and resistance. Vast in scope and stunning in its erudition, Culture and Imperialism reopens the dialogue between literature and the life of its time.


2. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Lists it appears on: Ranker, Goodreads, Goodreads 2, Thought Catalog, Goodreads 2
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a short novel by Polish novelist Joseph Conrad, written as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow’s experience as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa.






1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Lists it appears on: Five Books, The Horseshoe Nail, Boston University, Goodreads 2, Goodreads
Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe’s critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa’s cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man’s futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.

The 200+ Additional Best Colonialism Books

#BooksAuthorsLists
(Titles appear on 1 list each)
30A Bend in the RiverV.S. NaipaulGoodreads
31A Division of the Spoils (The Raj Quartet, #4)Paul ScottGoodreads
32A Fine BalanceRohinton Mistry
The Horseshoe Nail
33A Grain of WheatNgũgĩ wa Thiong’oGoodreads
34A House for Mr. BiswasV.S. NaipaulGoodreads
35A Man of the PeopleChinua AchebeGoodreads
36A Matter of HonourPhilip Mason
The Guardian
37A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle EastDavid Fromkin
Goodreads 2
38A People’s History of the United StatesHoward Zinn
Goodreads 2
39A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962Alistair Horne
Goodreads 2
40A TempestAimé CésaireGoodreads
41AfricaDavid Diop
Boston University
42Africa Has a FuturePeter MutandaGoodreads
43Africa My AfricaDavid Diop
Boston University
44African Perspectives on ColonialismA. Adu BoahenGoodreads
45African Short Stories:Twenty Short Stories from Across the ContinentChinua Achebe and Duncan Innes
Boston University
46African Survey
Wikipedia
47Amazon Watershed
Wikipedia
48America is in the HeartCarlos Bulosan
Thought Catalog
49America Right or Wrong
Wikipedia
50Anthills of the SavannahChinua Achebe
The Horseshoe Nail
51Anywhere But HereJerry OltionRanker
52Black Cosmopolitanism and Anticolonialism Pivotal MomentsBabacar M’Baye
Love Reading
53Black MischiefEvelyn WaughRanker
54Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken HeartTim ButcherGoodreads
55Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American EmpireChalmers Johnson
Goodreads 2
56Breath, Eyes, MemoryEdwidge DanticatGoodreads
57Broken CircleTheodore Fontaine49th shelf
58Brother, I’m DyingEdwidge DanticatGoodreads
59Burger’s DaughterNadine GordimerGoodreads
60Burn My HeartBeverley Naidoo
Boston University
61BushworldMaureen DowdRanker
62CaptivesLinda ColleyRanker
63Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies and the CIA in Central AmericaPeter Dale Scott
Goodreads 2
64Conquests And Cultures: An International HistoryThomas SowellRanker
65Cry, the Beloved CountryAlan PatonGoodreads
66Curry and RiceGeorge Francklin Atkinson
The Guardian
67Day of Empire
Wikipedia
68De stille krachtLouis CouperusGoodreads
69Death and the King’s Horseman: A PlayWole SoyinkaGoodreads
70Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African LiteratureNgũgĩ wa Thiong’oGoodreads
71Democracy MattersCornel WestRanker
72Diasporas and Transnationalisms The Journey of the Komagata MaruAnjali Gera Roy
Love Reading
73Dirty Wars: The World is a BattlefieldJeremy Scahill
Goodreads 2
74Discourse on ColonialismAimé Césaire
Goodreads 2
75Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs TonightAlexandra FullerGoodreads
76Dreaming in IndianLisa Charleyboy & Mary Beth Leatherdale49th shelf
77Economic ImperialismLeonard WoolfRanker
78EmpireHenry KamenRanker
79EmpireJames LaxerRanker
80EmpireMichael Hardt
Goodreads 2
81Empire liteMichael IgnatieffRanker
82Empire of CapitalEllen Meiksins WoodRanker
83Empire, the national, and the postcolonial, 1890-1920Elleke BoehmerRanker
84Empire: How Britain Made the Modern WorldNiall Ferguson
Goodreads 2
85Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1765 to the PresentDenis JuddRanker
86Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New ImperialismGreg Grandin
Goodreads 2
87Empires of the Atlantic WorldJ.H
Thought Catalog
88Essays on race and empireNancy CunardRanker
89Extravagant StrangersCaryl PhillipsRanker
90Facing East from Indian CountryDaniel K Richter
Thought Catalog
91Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on DemocracyNoam Chomsky
Goodreads 2
92Farewell The Trumpets: An Imperial RetreatJan MorrisGoodreads
93Fatty LegsChristy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton49th shelf
94Fixed ideasJoan DidionRanker
95Flying TortoiseTololwa Mollel
Boston University
96From a native daughterHaunani-Kay TraskRanker
97From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of AsiaPankaj Mishra
Goodreads 2
98Frontier JusticeScott RitterRanker
99Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity and RepresentationReina LewisGoodreads
100Glubb Pasha and the Arab Legion Britain, Jordan and the End of Empire in the Middle EastGraham Jevon
Love Reading
101Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress (The Pax Britannica Trilogy, #1)Jan MorrisGoodreads
102Heren van de theeHella S. HaasseGoodreads
103Histoire des deux Indes
Wikipedia
104Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell WarJean Bricmont
Goodreads 2
105I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in GuatemalaRigoberta MenchúGoodreads
106Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 WorldNoam Chomsky
Goodreads 2
107Imperial Hubris
Wikipedia
108Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in KenyaCaroline Elkins
Goodreads 2
109Imperial Vistas Family FictionsKendrick SmithymanRanker
110Imperialism (Hobson)
Wikipedia
111Imperialism Without ColoniesHarry MagdoffRanker
112Ireland in an Imperial World Citizenship, Opportunism, and SubversionTimothy McMahon
Love Reading
113Jesus for President
Wikipedia
114Journey to the End of the NightLouis-Ferdinand CélineGoodreads
115July’s PeopleNadine GordimerGoodreads
116Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War IIWilliam Blum
Goodreads 2
117KindlingMick FarrenRanker
118King Leopold’s Soliloquy
Wikipedia
119Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third WorldMike Davis
Goodreads 2
120Lord JimJoseph Conrad
Goodreads 2
121Man-Eaters of KumaonJim Corbett
The Guardian
122Marshall’s FamilyAnson WelshGoodreads
123Marxist Theories of Imperialism A HistoryMurray Noonan
Love Reading
124Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading CompanyMultatuliGoodreads
125Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and WarNathaniel PhilbrickGoodreads
126Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the PresentHarriet A. WashingtonGoodreads
127Missing NimamaMelanie Florence49th shelf
128
Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

Wikipedia
129My Heart Fills with HappinessMonique Gray Smith49th shelf
130No Longer at Ease (The African Trilogy, #2)Chinua AchebeGoodreads
131NostromoJoseph ConradGoodreads
132Not My GirlChristy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton49th shelf
133Notebook of a Return to the Native LandAimé CésaireGoodreads
134ObasanJoy Kogawa49th shelf
135Off the mapChellis GlendinningRanker
136On Trial for My CountryStanlake SamkangeGoodreads
137Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a ContinentEduardo Galeano
Goodreads 2
138Orientalism and raceTony BallantyneRanker
139OrnamentalismDavid CannadineRanker
140Out of Africa / Shadows on the GrassIsak DinesenGoodreads
141Out of Place: A MemoirEdward SaidRanker
142Out of the Shadow: A Russian Jewish Girlhood on the Lower East SideRose Cohen
Thought Catalog
143Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to IraqStephen Kinzer
Goodreads 2
144Pax Britannica: The Climax Of An EmpireJan MorrisGoodreads
145Peace killsP. J. O’RourkeRanker
146Phenomena: The Lost and Forgotten ChildrenSusan TarrGoodreads
147Pox AmericanaJohn Bellamy FosterRanker
148River of SmokeAmitav Ghosh
The Horseshoe Nail
149Roma EternaRobert SilverbergRanker
150
Rough Music: Blair, Bombs, Baghdad, London, Terror

Wikipedia
151Salone Italiano: The True Story of an Italian Immigrant Family’s Struggles in Southwestern ColoradoKay Niemann
Thought Catalog
152Season of Migration to the NorthTayeb SalihGoodreads
153ShameSalman RushdieGoodreads
154Silencing the PastMichel-Rolph TrouillotGoodreads
155Song of LawinoOkot p’Bitek
Boston University
156Star of the SeaJoseph O’ConnorGoodreads
157Staying OnPaul Scott
The Guardian
158Strangers Within the RealmBernard BailynRanker
159The Acadian Diaspora An Eighteenth-Century HistoryChristopher Hodson
Love Reading
160
The Accumulation of Capital

Wikipedia
161
The Age of Capital: 1848–1875

Wikipedia
162The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet BornAyi Kwei ArmahGoodreads
163The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo RevolutionC.L.R. James
Goodreads 2
164The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British EmpireJohn Newsinger
Goodreads 2
165The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street (The Cairo Trilogy #1-3)Naguib MahfouzGoodreads
166
The City: London and the Global Power of Finance

Wikipedia
167The Color PurpleAlice WalkerGoodreads
168The Constant GardenerJohn le CarréGoodreads
169The ConversationWole Soyinka
Boston University
170The Crime of the Congo
Wikipedia
171The CrucibleArthur MillerGoodreads
172The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997Piers Brendon
Goodreads 2
173The discovery of islandsJ.G.A. PocockRanker
174The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America, 1500-2000Andrew Cayton, Fred AndersonRanker
175
The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power

Wikipedia
176The EmperorRyszard KapuścińskiGoodreads
177The empire has no clothesIvan ElandRanker
178The English PatientMichael OndaatjeGoodreads
179The Enlightenment on Trial Ordinary Litigants and Colonialism in the Spanish EmpireBianca Premo
Love Reading
180
The Extreme Centre: A Warning

Wikipedia
181The First ManAlbert CamusGoodreads
182The First Men in the MoonH. G. WellsRanker
183The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African ChildhoodElspeth HuxleyGoodreads
184The folly of empireJohn JudisRanker
185The God of Small ThingsArundhati RoyGoodreads
186The Great MutinyChristopher Hibbert
The Guardian
187The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle EastRobert FiskGoodreads
188The Greek Cypriot Nationalist Right in the Era of British Colonialism Emergence, Mobilisation and Transformations of Right-Wing Party PoliticsYiannos Katsourides
Love Reading
189The GreenlandersJane SmileyGoodreads
190The Heart of the MatterGraham GreeneGoodreads
191The Heat and the DustRuth Prawer Jhabvala
The Horseshoe Nail
192The Humanistic Tradition, Book 5Gloria K. FieroRanker
193The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and WarJames D. Bradley
Goodreads 2
194The ImperialistSara Jeannette DuncanRanker
195The Irish Americans: A HistoryJay P
Thought Catalog
196The Jewel in the Crown (The Raj Quartet, #1)Paul ScottGoodreads
197The Last of the Mohicans (The Leatherstocking Tales #2)James Fenimore CooperGoodreads
198The Liberal Virus: Permanent War And The Americanization Of The WorldSamir Amin
Goodreads 2
199The Matter of Empire Metaphysics and Mining in Colonial PeruOrlando Bentancor
Love Reading
200The Moor’s Last SighSalman RushdieGoodreads
201The Most Distressful CountryRobert KeeRanker
202The Mouse that RoaredLeonard WibberleyRanker
203The Mzungu BoyMeja Mwangi
Boston University
204The New American Empire
Wikipedia
205The New ImperialismDavid Harvey
Goodreads 2
206The New Map of Empire How Britain Imagined America Before IndependenceS. Max Edelson
Love Reading
207The Obama Syndrome
Wikipedia
208The Old Man and the MedalFerdinand OyonoGoodreads
209The Piano TeacherJanice Y.K. LeeGoodreads
210The Poisonwood BibleBarbara KingsolverGoodreads
211The Power of One (The Power of One, #1)Bryce CourtenayGoodreads
212The Quiet AmericanGraham GreeneGoodreads
213The Racket (book)
Wikipedia
214The real terror networkEdward S. HermanRanker
215
The Revenge of History: The Battle for the Twenty First Century

Wikipedia
216The Risen EmpireScott WesterfeldRanker
217The River BetweenNgũgĩ wa Thiong’oGoodreads
218The Scarlet LetterNathaniel HawthorneGoodreads
219The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals & the Truth about Global CorruptionJohn Perkins
Goodreads 2
220The Secret Society
Wikipedia
221The Shadow of the SunRyszard KapuścińskiGoodreads
222The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes, #2)Arthur Conan DoyleGoodreads
223The Singapore GripJ.G. FarrellGoodreads
224The StrangerAlbert CamusGoodreads
225The Telephone ConversationWole Soyinka
Boston University
226The Uses of HaitiPaul FarmerGoodreads
227The Voyage OutVirginia WoolfGoodreads
228The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898Evan Thomas
Goodreads 2
229The Will to DieCan ThembaFive Books
230The Year of Living DangerouslyChristopher J. KochGoodreads
231There’s No José HereGabriel Thompson
Thought Catalog
232Thomas Jefferson, Legal History, and the Art of RecollectionMatthew Crow
Love Reading
233Three Strong WomenMarie NDiayeGoodreads
234Through African EyesLeon Clark
Boston University
235TranslationsBrian FrielGoodreads
236Travels into the Interior of AfricaMungo ParkFive Books
237TroublesJ.G. Farrell
The Horseshoe Nail
238Understanding Power
Wikipedia
239Unfamiliar FishesSarah Vowell
Goodreads 2
240UniverSoul ReflectionsPeter MutandaGoodreads
241Up the CountryEmily Eden
The Guardian
242W.E.B. Du Bois on AsiaW.E.B. Du BoisRanker
243Waiting for the BarbariansJ.M. CoetzeeGoodreads
244West with the NightBeryl MarkhamGoodreads
245When Heaven and Earth Changed PlacesLe Ly Hayslip
Thought Catalog
246When I Was EightChristy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton49th shelf
247White MughalsWilliam Dalrymple
The Guardian
248
Why Are We the Good Guys?: Reclaiming Your Mind from the Delusions of Propaganda

Wikipedia
249Wide Sargasso SeaJean RhysGoodreads
250World on Fire (book)
Wikipedia
251World Politics at the End of the Nineteenth CenturyPaul Samuel ReinschRanker
252Year 501: The Conquest ContinuesNoam Chomsky
Goodreads 2
253YounghusbandPatrick FrenchRanker
254Zenzele: A Letter for My DaughterJ. Nozipo Maraire
Boston University

11 Best Imperialism Book Sources/Lists

SourceArticle
49th shelf Kids Books on Colonialism
Boston University Literature on Colonialism
Five Books Sam Kiley recommends the best books on Colonial Africa
Goodreads Books About Colonialism
Goodreads 2 Popular Imperialism Books
Love Reading Colonialism & imperialism books
Ranker The Best Books About Imperialism
The Guardian Top 10 books about the British in India
The Horseshoe Nail 10 of the best ‘postcolonial’ novels
Thought Catalog 12 Books That Will Change The Way You Think About Colonization And Immigration
Wikipedia Category:Books about imperialism