Assimilating Identities: Racism and Educational Policy in Post 1945 Britain by Ian Grosvenor
This is an historical analysis of the central role played by the educational process in Britain in creating and perpetuating an identification of black people as both alien and as a "problem". The book documents national educational policy-making covering state-level approaches to black students as they continually changed - at least in rhetoric - from assimilation, to integration and multiculturalism. It also provides case-study material on local education authority policies in Birmingham in the 1960s. The author concludes with a reflection on the possibilities of producing a transformative historical narrative of the nation, which would recognize the historical experiences of Britain's black population and, thus, could help to bring to an end the enduring post-war practices of exclusion.