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A review by misterzed6
Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire by Caroline Elkins
3.0
This book is a real slog, interesting in parts and undoubtedly well researched and documented but in one significant respect it fails to do what it should. Make no mistake, the British empire was founded on slavery, enslavement, plunder, exploitation, repression, torture, mass murder and rape; and for the benefit of the tiny parasitic minority who get rich from the toil of others which includes those at the top of the social system in the UK the so called 'royal' family. An astonishing fact which the author doesn't mention is that up until 2015 successive British governments have being paying compensation to slave owners for the loss of their slaves! One such beneficiary sits as an MP for the bigoted racist party that governs the UK.
For a majority of my countrymen and women the British empire is viewed favourably both in terms of its benefits to the UK and to those colonised; British history regards Churchill as a hero for his leadership in WW2 and ignores his racism and colonial past. Unfortunately this book is unlikely to reach those who revel in the empire's past, nor convert its modern day apologists and one reason is the author's undoubted loathing for the UK and its people and the bias and prejudice which pervades her writing. Just a couple of examples: on page 264 of the hardback she mentions British bombing of German cities including Dresden, an appalling senseless act which served no purpose and cost upwards of 20,000 Germans their lives, many fleeing the rapists and murderers of the Red Army; for some reason she fails to mention that the US air force bombed Dresden in daylight following the British night raid, so adding to the death toll. On the following page she mentions the "harrowing experiences" of alien internees during WW2 in Britain - does she not know or conveniently forget about the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2?
Two wrongs don't make a right but this double standard reduces the impact of the book, the misplaced moral superiority from the author is rather hard to take from a country that committed genocide against the Native Peoples of America and perfected the system of slavery and repression of black people which continues to this day.
The partiality and prejudice of language is most inappropriate for a historian, who uses such terms as "taken out" when British civilian administrators were killed, yet victims of Britains security forces were nearly always described as murders. She even goes as far as defend pro Japanese Indians in WW2 because they were fighting against the British empire - what does she think the Japanese were doing in invading Singapore, Burma etc? Hardly a benign humanitarian act on the part of Japan.
Every example she quotes from bombing Dresden to internment without trial, to rendition to the use of chemical weapons have been perpetrated since by the USA; the dropping of more bombs on Vietnam, Loas and Cambodia by the USA than in WW2, Agent Orange in Vietnam; mass murders of civilians such as at My Lai where the perpetrators received derisory sentences; the illegal invasion of Iraq with UK connivance and rendition to Guantanamo Bay.
What is difficult to sustain for her is that as she says Britains empire shaped the modern world - undoubtedly the drawing of arbitrary lines on maps Britain and other colonial powers was reprehensible, but is she really saying that the current situation in Palestine between Arabs and Jews is all the fault of the UK and that without this country's interference they would be living in peace and harmony?
India and Pakistan have had 75 years free of British rule, surely inter-communal violence today cannot be blamed on the UK and those ruling elites in India and Pakistan and elsewhere such as Zimbabwe could quite easily have dispensed with British empire era repressive measures - except of course they suit their purpose in keeping the poor in check so they can plunder the wealth of the country. The last thing the rulers of India, Pakistan, Israel and Hamas want is for ordinary people to live in peace and harmony, violence serves their purpose.
The last chapter Empire Comes Home is an expert summation of modern Britain, from reverence to the Empire, the institutional racism of London's police, racist immigration policies and the misplaced exceptionalism that led to the vote to leave the EU. Modern Britain has parallels with the US, Brexit was our very own Make Britain Great Again, except of course it is mostly the English white nationalist bigot and racist who voted it through.
Whilst justifiably savaging the UK's record of colonial violence the prejudice and bias in the language used will only repel and entrench rather than enlighten and educate the average Briton.
Ms Elkins is clearly preaching to the converted but a little humility acknowledging the crimes committed in the name of American imperialism wouldn't go amiss.
For a majority of my countrymen and women the British empire is viewed favourably both in terms of its benefits to the UK and to those colonised; British history regards Churchill as a hero for his leadership in WW2 and ignores his racism and colonial past. Unfortunately this book is unlikely to reach those who revel in the empire's past, nor convert its modern day apologists and one reason is the author's undoubted loathing for the UK and its people and the bias and prejudice which pervades her writing. Just a couple of examples: on page 264 of the hardback she mentions British bombing of German cities including Dresden, an appalling senseless act which served no purpose and cost upwards of 20,000 Germans their lives, many fleeing the rapists and murderers of the Red Army; for some reason she fails to mention that the US air force bombed Dresden in daylight following the British night raid, so adding to the death toll. On the following page she mentions the "harrowing experiences" of alien internees during WW2 in Britain - does she not know or conveniently forget about the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2?
Two wrongs don't make a right but this double standard reduces the impact of the book, the misplaced moral superiority from the author is rather hard to take from a country that committed genocide against the Native Peoples of America and perfected the system of slavery and repression of black people which continues to this day.
The partiality and prejudice of language is most inappropriate for a historian, who uses such terms as "taken out" when British civilian administrators were killed, yet victims of Britains security forces were nearly always described as murders. She even goes as far as defend pro Japanese Indians in WW2 because they were fighting against the British empire - what does she think the Japanese were doing in invading Singapore, Burma etc? Hardly a benign humanitarian act on the part of Japan.
Every example she quotes from bombing Dresden to internment without trial, to rendition to the use of chemical weapons have been perpetrated since by the USA; the dropping of more bombs on Vietnam, Loas and Cambodia by the USA than in WW2, Agent Orange in Vietnam; mass murders of civilians such as at My Lai where the perpetrators received derisory sentences; the illegal invasion of Iraq with UK connivance and rendition to Guantanamo Bay.
What is difficult to sustain for her is that as she says Britains empire shaped the modern world - undoubtedly the drawing of arbitrary lines on maps Britain and other colonial powers was reprehensible, but is she really saying that the current situation in Palestine between Arabs and Jews is all the fault of the UK and that without this country's interference they would be living in peace and harmony?
India and Pakistan have had 75 years free of British rule, surely inter-communal violence today cannot be blamed on the UK and those ruling elites in India and Pakistan and elsewhere such as Zimbabwe could quite easily have dispensed with British empire era repressive measures - except of course they suit their purpose in keeping the poor in check so they can plunder the wealth of the country. The last thing the rulers of India, Pakistan, Israel and Hamas want is for ordinary people to live in peace and harmony, violence serves their purpose.
The last chapter Empire Comes Home is an expert summation of modern Britain, from reverence to the Empire, the institutional racism of London's police, racist immigration policies and the misplaced exceptionalism that led to the vote to leave the EU. Modern Britain has parallels with the US, Brexit was our very own Make Britain Great Again, except of course it is mostly the English white nationalist bigot and racist who voted it through.
Whilst justifiably savaging the UK's record of colonial violence the prejudice and bias in the language used will only repel and entrench rather than enlighten and educate the average Briton.
Ms Elkins is clearly preaching to the converted but a little humility acknowledging the crimes committed in the name of American imperialism wouldn't go amiss.