A review by anveri
Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire by Caroline Elkins

2.0

Shocked I finished this in one week

I’ll write something more articulate at later but I sense the rave reviews are because she preaching to the choir and not because she successfully proved her thesis. Broad and structurally weak this reads at times more like a history of empire than a history of state violence and outright terrorism within an empire. I found lacking complex analysis for an otherwise supposed academic work and her insistence of using “legalized lawlessness” when it was outright state terrorism is eyeroll worthy. This would have been a better work in more capable hands.

That said it’s funny to read negative reviews from Brits pulling a whataboutism regarding the United States and 250 years of its violence but alas this about the British empire so cope elsewhere.