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 broad-ranging cul