With a lethal cocktail of a global pandemic, strong man politics and rampant inequality, the summer of 2020 wasn’t great. But something unexpected was afoot: sparked by the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests, an unprecedented national conversation unfolded in Britain that summer about racism, social injustice and the legacies of the British Empire.

Taking the reader back to those tumultuous days, Tom Bentley frames the culture war over the British Empire as a struggle over common sense. Scrutinising the arguments of self-styled moderates, Bentley examines the pitches for common sense offered by those in the business of taming critical perspectives. At its heart, this is an optimistic book, and Bentley exposes the brittleness of these supposedly commonsense narratives. In doing so, he captures how apologists for the British Empire are increasingly finding themselves on the back foot.

Tom Bentley is a senior lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen, UK.