George Padmore and Decolonization from Below / Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies (PDF)

Leslie James is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of African Studies and
Anthropology, University of Birmingham. Prior to this, she was Lecturer in World History at the
University of Cambridge. Other publications include the forthcoming volume, Decolonization
and the Cold War: Negotiating Independence, co-edited with Elisabeth Leake.

“James compellingly restores Padmore to the forefront of Black Atlantic scholarship. Indeed, this book speaks to our political moment, with enduring problems of racial and economic inequality demanding renewed attention. The journey of George Padmore reminds us of what were the challenges yet also the moral imperatives of this ongoing struggle.” (Christopher J. Lee, American Historical Review, December, 2017)

“This story of Pan-Africanist intellectual development is contextualized within wider frameworks of postwar decolonization and the Cold War. The result is a most readable book that raises important new questions about the circulation and reception of transnational political ideas within imperial communication networks. ... an authoritative biography of Padmore by gathering original correspondence and government reports from Britain, Russia, Ghana, the United States, France, and Trinidad–an impressive feat ... .” (James R. Brennan, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 55 (3), July, 2016)


“Does a superb job of situating the political thought and activism of George Padmore within the wider patterns of Cold War politics and the politics of empire. … Leslie James is to be praised for a ground-breaking work of intellectual history that critically analyses the political thought of a figure whose previous neglect seems, thankfully, to be coming to an end. … her book will, however, be the standard against which all future studies of George Padmore must be measured.” (Daniel Whittall, Twentieth Century British History, Vol. 27 (2), June, 2016)


“Leslie James’s George Padmore and Decolonization from Below: PanAfricanism, the Cold War, and the End of Empire, augments what we know about Padmore with possibly the most sweeping account of his political thinking and his work with Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana. … necessarily and productively set the stage for any serious future study of Padmore and the black radical tradition.” (Minkah Makalani, Anthurium: A