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Human Resources

Slavery and the Making of Modern Britain – in 39 Institutions, People, Places and Things

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Human Resources

By: Renay Richardson, Arisa Loomba
Narrated by: Liyah Summers
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Ordinary items take on new meanings when you cast them in different light. The origins of tea, coffee and sugar are well known, but when you discover that gym treadmills were pioneered on plantations or that denim jeans were once clothing for enslaved people, you can't help but ask where else the legacy of slavery hides in plain sight.

Through the stories of thirty-nine everyday places and objects, Renay Richardson and Arisa Loomba unpick the threads of the history that we never learned in school, revealing the truth of how Britain's present is bound to a darker past.

Taking us from art galleries to football stands, banks to hospitals, from grand country houses to the backs of our kitchen cupboards, Human Resources is an eye-opening inquiry that gives a voice to the enslaved people who built modern Britain.©2025 Broccoli Content Ltd (P)2025 Profile Books Ltd Americas Colonialism & Post-Colonialism Europe Great Britain Politics & Government United States
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Fundamental to understanding modern Britain - should be used in schools! Interesting and accessible - highly recommend!

Essential listening!

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This was a clear and compelling guide to how the legacy of slavery touches all our lives every day. Fascinating and important.

Amazing eye opener

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