Martin Thomas and Matthew Parker Mary Hockaday

Historians Professor Martin Thomas and Matthew Parker discuss decolonisation and the end of empires and how they have profoundly shaped the globalised world we live in today.

Thomas is author of The End of Empires and a World Remade: A Global History of Decolonization. He tells the story of the end of empires and of decolonisation and how, in the second half of the 20th century, it triggered wars, led to new international coalitions, and reshaped North-South dynamics. He says that while the end of empire promised much for the decolonised countries, globalisation has reinforced economic inequalities and imperial forms of political and cultural influence.  Thomas is professor of imperial history and director of the Centre for Histories of Violence and Conflict at the University of Exeter.

Parker’s One Fine Day: 29 September 1923 Britain’s Empire on the Brink examines the moment that the British Empire reached its maximum territorial size. He focuses on the people and stories of that day and ranges across the empire. Parker says many of the issues are still with us today, including debates around identity in a globalised world, managing multi-ethnic political entities, racism, co-opting of religion for political purposes, and the dangers of ignorance. Parker is author of several history books including Monte Cassino, Panama Fever, The Sugar Barons and Goldeneye: Ian Fleming’s Jamaica. Here they talk to Mary Hockaday, master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, a former controller of BBC World Service, a former head of the BBC newsroom, and a one-time foreign correspondent for the BBC and The Independent.