Deconstructing White Supremacy: UK edition
Books to fill the gaping voids made by our school systems.
Examining concepts of race, class, culture, ethnicity, colourism, separatism, belonging, supremacy, identity, & the effects of British colonialism.
Some books have these themes incidentally, but in most they are the core focus.
Suggestions welcome!
created by Lurdo
last updated August, 2026
Comments
This is such a fantastic list, can't believe I just found it! White supremacy can be a bit more insidious in the UK because it is not always as overt as the US where most of the analysis and conversations are focused on (though obviously becoming increasingly overt in recent years😒) The national curriculum is a huge offender in maintaining this ignorance. So important to not exclude the UK from critical analysis and accountability. Thank you for compiling all these books!
love your comment, emma 👏 and thanks for creating this list @Lurdo! it’s incredibly valuable
LurdoOP
Thank you! There are so many incredible books out there! I've found so many new ones since I started compiling the list, I'm really excited to read them!
LurdoOP
Hi! I'm so glad you found it! It's been very slow to gain visibility, but I hope it's a topic more people want to learn about & find valuable.
The UK is such a big player in global white supremacy, but its impact gets minimised far too frequently. Our schooling purposefully bends over backwards to always have Britain as the benevolent good guys, it's a huge contributor to why people have such huge misconceptions of white supremacy & interpersonal & institutional racism. 🔗This post in Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race has a great discussion of people's experiences with the UK curriculum.
The national curriculum and education system makes me so angry, honestly, it made me so naïve. Pretty much all my history and world knowledge I've picked up after school. And that post is so interesting, thank you! I've noted down so many (pretty much all) of these titles from your list, I'm excited to start navigating it!
LurdoOP
I'm pretty sure everyone who hasn't been raised by frothing racists feels the same way. It really felt like we had the Tudors, white people WWII, the Titanic & William the Conqueror on repeat for my whole school life.
I didn't realise you were one of the biggest contributors when I linked the post 🤦 lol Amazing, I'm so glad you're excited too!
Haha, that's okay, there were quite a few people chatting there! And it made me go back and see some new contributions from other people😊
