Legacy of Violence
Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, a revelatory, fearless history of the British Empire that lays bare its pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century.
In this groundbreaking work, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Caroline Elkins uncovers the systematic brutality at the heart of the British Empire. Drawing on more than a decade of research across four continents and newly declassified archives, she exposes the global network of detention camps, torture, and cover-ups that underpinned the imperial project - from Kenya to Malaya and beyond.
Far from isolated incidents, Elkins reveals a pattern of violence, used to secure and maintain Britain’s interests across the globe. Legacy of Violence is meticulously researched, passionately argued, and deeply relevant to today’s debates about empire, accountability and historical memory.
A NEW YORK TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, HISTORY TODAY AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘Masterly… This book is dynamite’ Robert Gildea
‘Not so much a history book as a book of historical significance’ BBC History Magazine
‘Crucial… as unflinching as it is gripping’ Jill Lepore
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.