Legacy of Violence
A History of the British Empire
Published on 24. March 2022
Book
Hardback
896 pages
978-1-84792-106-2 (ISBN)
Description
**Winner of the NYU/Axinn Foundation Prize 2024**
**Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2022**
A searing, landmark study of the British Empire that lays bare its pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century.
'This book is dynamite' ROBERT GILDEA, author of Empires of the Mind
Sprawling across a quarter of the world's land mass and claiming nearly seven hundred million people, Britain's empire was the largest in human history. For many, it epitomized the nation's cultural superiority, but what legacy have we delivered to the world?
Spanning more than two hundred years of history, Caroline Elkins reveals an evolutionary and racialized doctrine that espoused an unrelenting deployment of violence to secure and preserve British imperial interests. She outlines how ideological foundations of violence were rooted in Victorian calls for punishing indigenous peoples who resisted subjugation, and how over time this treatment became increasingly systematised. And she makes clear that when Britain could no longer maintain control over the violence it provoked and enacted, Britain retreated from its empire, destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policies and practices.
Drawing on more than a decade of research on four continents, Legacy of Violence explodes long-held myths and sheds a disturbing new light on empire's role in shaping the world today.
**A NEW YORK TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, HISTORY TODAY and HISTORY EXTRA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022**
**Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2022**
A searing, landmark study of the British Empire that lays bare its pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century.
'This book is dynamite' ROBERT GILDEA, author of Empires of the Mind
Sprawling across a quarter of the world's land mass and claiming nearly seven hundred million people, Britain's empire was the largest in human history. For many, it epitomized the nation's cultural superiority, but what legacy have we delivered to the world?
Spanning more than two hundred years of history, Caroline Elkins reveals an evolutionary and racialized doctrine that espoused an unrelenting deployment of violence to secure and preserve British imperial interests. She outlines how ideological foundations of violence were rooted in Victorian calls for punishing indigenous peoples who resisted subjugation, and how over time this treatment became increasingly systematised. And she makes clear that when Britain could no longer maintain control over the violence it provoked and enacted, Britain retreated from its empire, destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policies and practices.
Drawing on more than a decade of research on four continents, Legacy of Violence explodes long-held myths and sheds a disturbing new light on empire's role in shaping the world today.
**A NEW YORK TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, HISTORY TODAY and HISTORY EXTRA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022**
Reviews / Votes
Masterful, crucial ... as unflinching as it is gripping, as carefully researched as it is urgently necessary -- Jill Lepore, author of These Truths Masterly... demonstrates that the British Empire, far from being part good, part bad, baked together from the outset state-sponsored violence and institutional racism with a periodic rewriting of its history as one of progress and civilisation, covering up atrocities and hiding or destroying incriminating documents. This book is dynamite -- Robert Gildea, author of Empires of the Mind The history of the British Empire that we desperately need today... Sweeping, forceful, and passionately argued... A monumental achievement -- Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch A gripping, richly peopled, epic narrative... In stunning prose and drawing on staggering research, Elkins uncovers the reality of routine and ruthlessly violent suspension of law and militarized policing as imperial personnel and practices moved from crisis to crisis around the globe -- Priya Satia, author of Time's Monster: How History Makes History In nothing was the British Empire more successful than its skilful concealment of the violence that it unleashed across the globe, over centuries. Caroline Elkins' Legacy of Violence is a laudably ambitious attempt at unearthing this hidden legacy, the bitter fruits of which are becoming more and more visible every day -- Amitav Ghosh, author of The Nutmeg's Curse Illuminating and authoritative... The repression and violence Elkins narrates on an epic scale matters because they continue to reverberate tragically in our global present -- Priyamvada Gopal, author of Insurgent Empire A work of deep archival achievement that creates a historical argument that is courageous and ambitious... This is a text for our times -- Homi Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University A thumping great study by a heavyweight academic historian -- Robbie Millen * The Times, *Books to Look Out For 2022* * A clear, incisive account of the way in which the British maintained public order in the colonies through 'lawful lawlessness'... An exceedingly valuable book on the dark side of the British Empire -- Wm. Roger Louis, Editor-in-Chief of Oxford History of the British Empire Legacy of Violence is a formidable piece of research that sets itself the ambition of identifying the character of British power over the course of two centuries and four continents... this history could not be more timely -- Tim Adams * Observer * Legacy of Violence...is deeply researched... a powerful, compelling read -- Rana Mitter * Financial Times * Fascinating... [Legacy of Violence] is a harrowing read, and one that brings the violence of empire sharply into focus -- Alex von Tunzelmann * BBC History Magazine * Vividly written... [Elkins] brings together...episodes in order to draw out what she sees as their commonalities in British imperial doctrine -- John Darwin * Times Literary Supplement * [Elkins'] magnum opus... Elkins' achievement is to chronicle how makeshift responses to rebellion evolved into a chillingly standardised playbook for the use of force -- Erik Linstrum * History Today * Legacy of Violence is beautifully written and follows through on its arguments doggedly... This is an important book that deserves to be read by everyone who wants to understand and argue against the current attempt to reinvigorate the romance of the British Empire * Socialist Worker * A dark, riveting book... her [Elkins'] method is what gives the book its intensity * New Statesman, *Books of the Year* * Fascinating... a real page-turner... the writing is backed up with considerable academic research... the evidence of systematic oppression, presented as powerfully and relentlessly as it is here, will be difficult to resist * Literary Review * Not so much a history book as a book of historical significance * BBC History Magazine, *Best Books of 2022* *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
100 b/w illustrations in text; 12 maps
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 55 mm
Weight
1435 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84792-106-2 (9781847921062)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Caroline Elkins is a professor of history and of African and African American studies at Harvard University and the founding director of Harvard's Centre for African Studies. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Fulbright and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship.
Her first book, Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Her research for that book was the subject of the award-winning BBC documentary Kenya: White Terror. She also served as an expert in the historic Mau Mau reparations case, brought against the British Government by survivors of violence in Kenya.
She is a contributor to the New York Times Book Review, Guardian, Atlantic, Washington Post and New Republic. She lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Her first book, Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Her research for that book was the subject of the award-winning BBC documentary Kenya: White Terror. She also served as an expert in the historic Mau Mau reparations case, brought against the British Government by survivors of violence in Kenya.
She is a contributor to the New York Times Book Review, Guardian, Atlantic, Washington Post and New Republic. She lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.