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Kim A. Wagner Profile picture
Kim A. Wagner
@KimAtiWagner
Professor of Global and Imperial History, QMUL. New book: 'Massacre in the Clouds' on U.S. atrocity at Bud Dajo in 1906 with PublicAffairs. Rep. Wylie Agency
Nov 9, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I am writing a book about a single photograph taken during the worst massacre in U.S. history - one that few people have ever heard of. In March 1906, American forces killed more than 1000 local Muslims, including women and children, at Bud Dajo in the southern Philippines. Image I have blurred the image here, but it is a restored version of an original print I discovered in a U.S. archive. There was in fact no less than three photographers present at Bud Dajo, though this is the most iconic image - taken with an old-fashioned 4x5 glass plate camera.
Nov 9, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The definition of Orientalism captured in a single tweet... 'If you want to read a book on Britain today by someone who truly knows every tube station in London and has interviewed many Beefeaters, I highly recommend...'
Jul 29, 2022 • 19 tweets • 6 min read
Dear Britain: If you want to understand why Cecil Rhodes has become so central to the identity politics and current culture-war of the right - to the point that the BBC is openly whitewashing his legacy (in the name of 'balance') - here is a thread:
1/
 bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan… 2/ I wrote this as a review of @PriyaSatia's book, 'Time's Monster', which does a great job of explaining how history and notions of 'balance' has always been part of the imperial project.
May 23, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
If anyone is interested in trying to understand the politics behind the current celebration of the British Empire, I wrote a review of @PriyaSatia's book, which explains why this is not simply 'nostalgia' but rather a continuation of an imperialist worldview 1/ 2/ Image
May 22, 2021 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
I commend Nigel Biggar for finally coming out and being open and honest about his defense and celebration of white supremacist and arch-imperialist, Cecil Rhodes. The fact that this is based on a blatantly disingenuous misreading of the historical facts is another matter...
Mar 21, 2021 • 28 tweets • 11 min read
After today's important announcement regarding new rules for flying the Union Jack, I can finally reveal the playbook behind the Government's plan to revive national pride in Britain. Been sitting on this for a while, so really excited to share - a LONG thread! /1 /2
Mar 11, 2021 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
This is just a reminder, if any was needed, that violence was *not* incidental but rather central to the British Empire and the imperial project more broadly. Since @NigelBiggar has yet again written a deeply flawed piece of Empire apologia, it's time for another thread - /1 Biggar's article in @IrishTimes contains numerous inaccuracies, to put it nicely, but I shall focus just on what he says about violence and it’s role in the Empire. /2

irishtimes.com/opinion/presid…
Mar 8, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
So this just dropped: Image Image
Feb 18, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This is a really interesting read about the potential trauma of writing the history of atrocities etc:
newrepublic.com/article/161127… This has been on my mind ever since I first wrote about human trophies and now that I've moved on to atrocity-photography - my biggest concern, however, has not been about my own well-being but about my inability to adequately do justice to the suffering I describe...
Feb 8, 2021 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Since @NigelBiggar is once more rallying to the defense of Cecil Rhodes' statue in Oxford, and @DanielJHannan presumably is not far behind, it might be worth taking a closer look at who Rhodes actually was... /1 Rhodes’ modern-day supporters insist that he was a great man whose memory should be honoured, and that removing his statue would be tantamount to the erasure of history. Rhodes was furthermore no racist, we are told. /2
Feb 8, 2021 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
I wrote a review of @PriyaSatia's important book, 'Time's Monster: History, Conscience and Britain's Empire':

kim-ati-wagner.medium.com/review-of-priy…

@alexvtunzelmann @profdanhicks @pdkmitchell @Sathnam @DalrympleWill @DavidOlusoga @corinne_fowler @thehistoryguy @redhistorian Reading this book has helped me make sense of some of the more puzzling aspects of the current debates of the legacies of the British Empire: Why is it perceived as objectionable merely to study the colonial past of British heritage, or to point out basic facts about imperialism?
Dec 12, 2020 • 17 tweets • 7 min read
As 2020 is coming to an end, you can either read a dozen Quilette articles or letters in The Times - or even throw in a PragerU video for good measure - insisting the British Empire was 'Overwhelmingly a force for good' and that 'wokery' is erasing history... Or you can avail yourself of the critical and deeply researched work of actual scholars. Here are my recommendations for Christmas gifts this year - for anyone seriously interested in the history of the British Empire and its legacies:

@PriyaSatia 'Time's Monster'
Nov 12, 2020 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
My initial reaction to @SimonClarkeMP's inane take on British history was despondency, but my students convinced me it's worth engaging - so here is a thread, since this really is a beautiful illustration of the right's historical illiteracy: 1/ Yes, our history is indeed complex - but that has nothing to do with how long a nation state (not sure which one exactly) has existed - the history of the US, for instance, is no less complex than that of Britain...2/ Image
Sep 30, 2020 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
A brief thread on Gilley et al. The one thing to keep in mind is that at the most basic level they have no qualifications or expertise in the fields to which they claim to be contributing. This is not about freedom of speech, it’s about basic academic standards. 1/ Gilley is a political scientist whose actual research focuses on modern China - which begs the question why @RLPGBooks thought he was the right person to edit a series on 'Anti-Colonialism'...2/
Aug 29, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
We often hear this question in debates about the Empire: 'Is there a single positive thing to be said, in your view, about the British Empire?'

The answer is no - I'm a historian, not a food-critic or a film-reviewer. And no-one would ask the same question about Nazi Germany. This exact wording was, btw, Michael Buerk's first question to @NadineElEnany on *that* episode of the Moral Maze. Her answer was brilliant...
Aug 28, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Why are studies of the violence of decolonization and counterinsurgency so often analytically thin and chronologically limited? At most there's a throw-away reference to earlier colonial conflicts; but mostly its about post-1945 politics, tactics and individual actions. No study of, for instance, American violence in Vietnam or the 9/11 Wars is really complete without due consideration of the deep (cultural) history of the Indian Wars and Philippines etc. In my opinion.
May 6, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I am about to go through the proofs of a chapter I wrote back in 2016 on subaltern resistance and the issue of both agency and perspective is so important when writing/teaching Western imperialism. 1/ While it's crucial for us to produce a counternarrative, and not merely replicate the conventional Eurocentric perspective, we also have to be cautious about notions of 'victim-hood' and 'agency' and 'resistance' - subalterns (broadly conceived) were not uniformly heroic... 2/
Apr 29, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Hi Ben – since you feel the responses to your tweet yesterday were unfair, I’ll try once more. 1/ The framing of your script is deeply flawed because it locates the cause of ‘conflict’ in what you describe as ‘incompatible visions’ and ‘misunderstanding and resentment’ when the answer is really, and indisputably, genocidal settler-expansion. 2/
Mar 16, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
My Uni just ended face-to-face teaching and is moving everything online from tomorrow - this is the right call! I'd rather be accused of panicking and being a 'snowflake' than taking any unnecessary risks. And I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong... And since I've got 40 third-year students worrying about their dissertations, 10+ first-year PhDs worrying about their upgrade, and another 40 second-year students worrying about other assessments, I'll be focusing on supervision and assistance in planning, research and writing.
Mar 7, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
1/ I'm always quick to share my successes here on Twitter, so here is a few words on the rejection for a book-proposal I just received from a major academics publisher.

There were three readers reports: The first was overwhelmingly positive and strongly encouraged publication. 2) The second had some nice things to say about certain parts of the proposal, but overall was not convinced by the framing and pointed out a number of omissions from my sample-historiography - and suggested rejection.
Jan 8, 2020 • 15 tweets • 16 min read
I was recently talking with @MichaelGVann about Trump’s pardon of US soldiers and I realised why recent interventions by @waitmanb and others sit so uneasily with me.

A thread on colonial violence, the 9/11 wars and Trump /1

#twitterstorians @nikhil_palsingh @LyleJeremyRubin @MichaelGVann @waitmanb @nikhil_palsingh @LyleJeremyRubin Here are some of the articles in question:

washingtonpost.com/outlook/i-led-…

washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/1…

washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/1…

/2