In the fifth instalment of our series on war and memory we speak with Harvard historian Maya Jasanoff on the different ways Empire is remembered in Britain and the disconnect between how the British state wants the public to view the country’s colonial past and the way it is seen by different communities. Maya also discusses how these histories – including the cult of Winston Churchill and nostalgia for World War II – bleed into more recent British military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the decision to leave the European Union.

Maya Jasanoff is Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University, where she focuses on the history of Britain and the British Empire.

You can find out more about Maya’s work here.