Historians working towards a full imperial reckoning for Britain

Afua Hirsch’s welcome call for a British museum of empire (Britain’s colonial crimes deserve a lasting memorial. Here’s why, 22 November) is helpfully, if unintentionally, supported by the prime minister’s description of Britain as “Zimbabwe’s oldest friend”: exactly the type of post-colonial amnesia that demonstrates a national failure to come to terms with our imperial past and the way it shapes the present. More...