Paul Gilroy has been a controversial force at the forefront of debates around race, nation, and diaspora. Working across a broad range of disciplines, Gilroy has argued that racial identities are historically constructed, formed by colonization, slavery, nationalist philosophies, and consumer capitalism.

Paul Williams introduces Gilroy s key themes and ideas, including:

• the essential concepts, including ethnic absolutism, civilizationism, postcolonial melancholia, iconization, and the black Atlantic
• analysis of Gilroy s...