Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire

Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire is a 2022 nonfiction history book by American historian and professor Caroline Elkins. The book covers the history of the British Empire from the Great Bengal famine of 1770 through the post-World War II period of recurring end-of-empire insurgencies up until the present-day, including the Mau Mau High Court case and the ongoing imperial history wars. The book was short-listed for the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.

Background

Caroline Elkins' first book, for which she won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, was Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (2005), examines human rights abuses in British detention facilities in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion. Elkins says that she started writing Legacy of Violence to answer questions which had been raised in Imperial Reckoning. Elkins describes her research for Legacy of Violence as "arduous," in part because there were many missing documents relating to the detention camps, and British-controlled colonial Kenya in general. In 2009, four years after the publication of Imperial Reckoning, five survivors of the British detention camps in Kenya had sued the British government, and Elkins had appeared as an expert witness on the survivors' behalf. During the investigation, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) discovered 300 boxes of documents relating to the British detention facilities. Elkins began research for Legacy of Violence shortly after, combing through both the newly released documents as well as 8,800 files from 36 other colonies, and expanding her research to pre-World War II Britain.

Overview

Elkins begins by examining the impact of British colonization on Kenya, where the empire's policies of forced labor, land confiscation, and repression led to a brutal campaign of violence against the indigenous population. She details the horrific practices of the British colonial administration, including the use of concentration camps, torture, and summary executions.

The book then expands to examine the broader legacy of the British Empire, exploring its impact on other countries, such as India and Ireland. The book explores how the government at home often disregarded colonial peoples, highlighting the 1770 famine in Bengal. Elkins talks about how the British East India Company and their various associates made record profits for London, even while the death count from the famine steadily rose due to high taxes and high grain prices.

Reception

Tim Adams wrote in The Guardian about the book, "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." Nicholas Sprenger stated about the book: "This is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of the British Empire or imperialism at large." The book was reviewed by many, including Kirkus Reviews, which called the book "a scathing indictment of the long and brutal history of British imperialism", as well as David Kermer, Publishers Weekly, Sarah Shaffi, New Statesman, Waterstones, the Financial Times, and The New York Times, which put the book on their Top 100 Most Notable Books of 2022 list. The book was included in the Best History Books of 2022 by historian R.J.B. Bosworth. It also made the list of BBC History Magazine’s Books of the Year 2022.

Former British army major latter historian Robert Lyman gave it a negative review, calling it "a piece of ideology masquerading as history". Bruce Gilley described it as a "history of colonialism that’s more angry than accurate" and criticised Elkins research stating a "mean-spirited suspicion coats each and every artifact she unearths... She is wholly unreliable as a reporter." Lee Boldeman in his book Mau Mau Whitewash. Britain Slandered criticises Elkins as responsible for myth-making over the Mau-Mau rebellion.

University of Maryland historian Richard N. Price said that "if the book tends to overstuff its argument, it is also a book that is curiously thin in its conceptualization. Nuance and subtlety are strikingly absent throughout all the key arguments of the book." However, Price also noted that "the author demonstrates an impressive command both of archival research and of the secondary literature."

See also

• Foreign and Commonwealth Office Migrated Archives
• Imperial Reckoning

Further reading

• Caroline Elkins' Staff profile, Harvard University.
• Benton, Lauren. Evil Empires? The Long Shadow of British Colonialism, July/August 2022, Foreign Affairs.
• Bergen, Peter. The British Empire: A legacy of violence? Caroline Elkins interviewed by Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst, September 25, 2022.
• Elkins, Caroline. Britain Can No Longer Hide Behind the Myth That Its Empire Was Benign, April 2, 2022, Time.
• Elkins, Caroline. “Looking beyond Mau Mau: Archiving Violence in the Era of Decolonization.” The American Historical Review, vol. 120, no. 3, 2015, pp. 852–68.
• Elkins, Caroline. 'Legacy of Violence' documents the dark side of the British Empire July 11, 2022, Caroline Elkins interviewed by Arun Venungopal, Podcast link