Inside the Black Box of 'White Backlash': Letters of Support to Enoch Powell (1968-1969)

Inside the Black Box of ‘White Backlash’ delves into the letters of support sent to British politician Enoch Powell following his infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech on April 20, 1968.

Key Highlights:

• Unprecedented Support: Never before had a politician received such an overwhelming amount of written support in such a short period.
• Thematic Exploration: The book uses a thematic approach to analyze how British whites leveraged Powell’s speech to express:
  • Frustrations and anger.
  • Hostility toward (non-white) immigrants.
  • Concerns about the evolution of British society during the late 1960s.

Chapter Breakdown:

Each chapter focuses on one aspect of a 10,000-letter sample, taken from the approximately 100,000 letters Powell received:

• Race
• State
• War
• Empire
• America
• Class
• Gender
• Elites
• Parties
• ‘Against’ (analyzing letters of protest against Powell).

This extraordinary archival material offers a rare and unique perspective on British society in the late 1960s, presenting what can be described as a (white) anthropology of nativist Britons during a time of rapid societal change.

Audience:

This book is an invaluable resource for:

• Students and academics studying race, immigration, and ethnicity.
• The general public interested in understanding this critical moment in British history.