The Times has another disturbing story about the woke takeover of publishing. It seems Nigel Biggar’s book about the British Empire was cancelled for not being sufficiently anti-Empire. Biggar made the mistake of giving a nuanced and fair account based on knowledge, research, and expertise, rather than blind adherence to anti-colonialist dogma. Here’s an excerpt:
One of Britain’s biggest publishers has been accused of cancelling a book on colonialism by an eminent Oxford academic that concluded the British Empire was not all bad.
Bloomsbury, which published the Harry Potter series, chose to pay off Professor Nigel Biggar rather than publish his book despite initially describing it as a work of “major importance”.
The Times has seen emails exchanged between Biggar and Bloomsbury, which show how the publisher went from enthusiastic to unwilling to publish in three months.
In 2018 the company approached Biggar, who was then regius professor of moral and pastoral theology at the University of Oxford, to write a book about colonialism following his research into “ethics and empire”. Terms were agreed and Biggar delivered the book, called Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, at the end of 2020.
The book argues that despite grave mistakes and moments of gross injustice, the British Empire learnt from its errors and was increasingly propelled by humanitarian and liberal ideals, most notably through the abolition and suppression of slavery. It also examines the work of a number of historians who Biggar claims “overstate” the sins of British colonialism, concluding that they are sustained by contempt for the West.
After reading the manuscript, Biggar’s editor at Bloomsbury emailed him to say he was “speechless” with enthusiasm. He wrote: “Your research is exhaustive. Your argument is conveyed with care and precision. This is such an important book. I am now going to spread the good news around Bloomsbury about this exciting new project.”
However, three months later Biggar received an email from Sarah Broadway, the head of special interest publishing at the company, which said “conditions are not currently favourable to publication” and that she wanted to delay.
Biggar asked her to clarify what she meant but she offered only one sentence of explanation: “We consider that public feeling on the subject does not currently support the publication of the book and will reassess that next year.”
Biggar replied again, pointing out public feeling is “diverse” and asked again for clarification. He wrote: “Therefore, could you clarify for me, please: which public feeling concerns you; in what sense it is ‘unfavourable’ to publication; and what would need to change to make it ‘favourable’ again?”
Broadway wrote back, saying that Bloomsbury had “grappled with giving defined criteria” but found this “difficult to define objectively”. She said: “We have concluded that this subjectivity could lead to your book being in a limbo lasting more than a year or it might not but we don’t wish to put you in that position of uncertainty.” She explained this meant that Bloomsbury would like to release Biggar from his contract.
A publisher who struggles to express things in words, and relies on their subjective perception of the whims of ‘public feeling’. What could possibly go wrong? Biggar, on the other hand, had no trouble naming the problem:
Biggar, who was told by a source at Bloomsbury that senior executives chose not to publish because junior staff disliked his work, replied: “It is quite clear… the public feeling that concerns you is that of — for want of a more scientific term — the ‘woke’ Left.”
He added: “Rather than publish cogent arguments and important truths that would attract the aggression of these illiberals, you chose to align yourselves with them by de-platforming me. In so doing, you have made your own contribution to the expansion of authoritarianism and the shrinking of moral and political diversity.”
Very well put. But then, that’s what one would expect of a serious writer whose work deserves to be published by what used to be our most respected publishers. Luckily, the book is now being published by the apparently more sensible people at William Collins.
Worth reading in full.
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