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A review by syllabus_of_errors
Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire by Caroline Elkins
5.0
This book was a difficult read, not because of issues with the writing (the writing is very clear and tells a compelling narrative that connects all the different threads cohesively), but because of the subject matter.
Legacy of Violence is a book that in the four months since finishing reading it, has gone on to noticeably shape my view of the British and their former empire. I grew up with a shade of anglophilia (as an American and the child of an Anglophile that grew up in Hong Kong), and over time I’ve worked to reassess the horrendous colonialist and imperialist attitudes that are either treated as quaint relics of the past, or irrelevant to the “modern” Britain.
Legacy of Violence makes it impossible to rationalize the colonialist attitudes of the Empire to some foggy past, and forces any good faith reader to reckon with the continued current by both the UK government and a vocal segment of its people of white supremacy, covering up atrocities committed in the name of King and Country, and the continued oppression of former colonies through soft power diplomacy, obstructionism, and rewriting history.
To my surprise, Legacy of Violence opens with the end of WWI, rather than the earlier colonial ventures during the normally discussed “First Phase” colonialism of North America and mercantilist expansion, or even the “Neoimperialst” period of the Scramble for Africa and industrial expansion. Instead, it focuses on the era within living memories and active litigation: Israel and the Middle East, Malaya, and Kenya.
Today’s narrative on the legacy of the Empire focuses on stolen art and artifacts. While topics like the Benin Bronzes are worthy, I feel it’s an intentional distraction from the more fundamentally-destabilizing topics covered in Legacy of Violence: intentional actions by the British State to commit genocide and violent colonial repression, even after the end of WWII and the horrors of the Holocaust.
Elkins describes her personal involvement with the lawsuits filed by the survivors and descendants of those massacred by the British while repressing the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya, and through this slog of a book, she lays out the evidence for a deep pattern, chain of events, and recurring administrators and actors within the British government linking atrocities and cover ups through the 20th century and creating between 1930 and 1965.
By all accounts, I recommend this book.
Legacy of Violence is a book that in the four months since finishing reading it, has gone on to noticeably shape my view of the British and their former empire. I grew up with a shade of anglophilia (as an American and the child of an Anglophile that grew up in Hong Kong), and over time I’ve worked to reassess the horrendous colonialist and imperialist attitudes that are either treated as quaint relics of the past, or irrelevant to the “modern” Britain.
Legacy of Violence makes it impossible to rationalize the colonialist attitudes of the Empire to some foggy past, and forces any good faith reader to reckon with the continued current by both the UK government and a vocal segment of its people of white supremacy, covering up atrocities committed in the name of King and Country, and the continued oppression of former colonies through soft power diplomacy, obstructionism, and rewriting history.
To my surprise, Legacy of Violence opens with the end of WWI, rather than the earlier colonial ventures during the normally discussed “First Phase” colonialism of North America and mercantilist expansion, or even the “Neoimperialst” period of the Scramble for Africa and industrial expansion. Instead, it focuses on the era within living memories and active litigation: Israel and the Middle East, Malaya, and Kenya.
Today’s narrative on the legacy of the Empire focuses on stolen art and artifacts. While topics like the Benin Bronzes are worthy, I feel it’s an intentional distraction from the more fundamentally-destabilizing topics covered in Legacy of Violence: intentional actions by the British State to commit genocide and violent colonial repression, even after the end of WWII and the horrors of the Holocaust.
Elkins describes her personal involvement with the lawsuits filed by the survivors and descendants of those massacred by the British while repressing the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya, and through this slog of a book, she lays out the evidence for a deep pattern, chain of events, and recurring administrators and actors within the British government linking atrocities and cover ups through the 20th century and creating between 1930 and 1965.
By all accounts, I recommend this book.