Review: Rob Waters. Colonized by Humanity

In Enoch Powell’s often quoted 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech, the Conservative Party politician warned against the dangers of rising immigration from Britain’s former colonies. Powell claimed that there was “a ludicrous and dangerous misconception” that the “great and growing majority of immigrants” demonstrated a desire to integrate within the British nation. Powell’s speech no doubt whipped up racial antagonism, but he was far from the first British politician to focus on the limits and possibilities of integration. MP Roy Hattersley’s now famous aphorism summed up state responses to immigration in the 1960s: “Without integration, limitation is inexcusable; without limitation, integration is impossible” (12). For the ­­Minister of Education, Sir Edward Boyle, “the problem of race relations, and of integration versus segregation, would continue for generations to be one of the most important issues facing the free world.” Figures from across the political spectrum have therefore acknowledged the importance of integration within histories of modern Britain, yet it has until now received scant ­­scholarly attention.