From a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian: a searing study of the British Empire that probes the country's pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century and traces how these practices were exported, modified, and institutionalized in colonies around the globe Sprawling across a quarter of the world's land mass and claiming nearly seven hundred million people, Britain's twentieth-century empire was the largest empire in human history. For many Britons, it epitomized their nation's cultural superiority. But what legacy did the island nation deliver to the world? Covering more than two hundred years of history, Caroline Elkins reveals an evolutionary and racialized doctrine that espoused an unrelenting deployment of violence to secure and preserve the nation's imperial interests. She outlines how ideological foundations of violence were rooted in the Victorian era calls for punishing recalcitrant "natives," and how over time, its forms became increasingly systematized. And she makes clear that when Britain could no longer maintain control over the violence it provoked and enacted, it retreated from empire, destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policies and practices. Drawing on more than a decade of research on four continents, Legacy of Violence implicates all sides of Britain's political divide in the creation, execution, and cover-up of imperial violence. By demonstrating how and why violence was the most salient factor underwriting Britain's empire and the nation's imperial identity at home, Elkins upends long-held myths and sheds new light on empire's role in shaping the world today. Winner of the 2024 NYU/Axinn Foundation Prize Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize “Sweeping and detailed . . . With its enormous breadth and ambition, [ Legacy of Violence ] amounts to something approaching a one-volume history of imperial Britain’s use of force, torture, and deceit around the world. . . . Assembling so many examples spread widely across space and time allows Elkins to build an impressively damning account of the British Empire.” —Howard W. French, The Nation “A scathing indictment . . . [A] tour de force of historical excavation . . . Offering numerous correctives to Whitewashed history, the author mounts potent attacks against the egregious actions of vaunted figures. . . . [ Legacy of Violence is] top-shelf history offering tremendous acknowledgement of past systemic abuses.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “[Elkins’] detailed description of British policy and actions in Ireland, India, Malaya, Cyprus, Kenya, Nyasaland, Jamaica, and Palestine makes for unsettling, yet necessary reading. . . . Thoroughly researched and presented in scrupulous detail, this tale of 'legalized violence,' founded on a racism not even thinly disguised, is a must-read for serious students of history.” —David Keymer, Library Journal (starred review) “[Elkins] returns to a much larger canvas in her provocative new book . . . A colorful account.” —Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The New York Times Book Review “Deeply researched . . . Legacy of Violence does not stint on detail. . . . Yet Elkins wears her considerable learning lightly, and is wise enough to allow her considerable anger to smoulder, rather than burn from the pages, making for a powerful, compelling read. . . . The book opens up ground for a wider debate on the factors that shaped the three centuries of British global empire.” —Rana Mitter, Financial Times “Shocking, meticulous detail . . . Persuasive . . . 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. . . . In many ways, of course, this long history could not be more timely. Elkins offers an open and shut case for those who believe that Rhodes must fall. Her book should, you hope, also find its way into the hands of at least some of that 60% of [the United Kingdom] who, when polled in 2014, thought the British empire was, in general, ‘something to be proud of.’” —Tim Adams, The Guardian “ Legacy of Violence . . . brings detailed context to individual stories. . . . Visiting archives in a dozen countries over four continents, examining hundreds of oral histories, and drawing on the work of social historians and political theorists, Elkins traces the [British] Empire’s arc across centuries and theatres of crisis.” —Sunil Khilnani, The New Yorker “In this sweeping, ambitious chronicle, [Elkins] extends her commanding investigative and interpretive powers around the globe to include India, South Africa and Palestine. Elkins convincingly makes the case that the British Empire, with its principles cloaked in uplifting paternalism, was built on violence.” —The National Book Review “‘All empires are violent,’ Caroline Elkins observes in this masterful, crucial study, but Britain’s only became more violent over time, even as it tou