A NEW YORK TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, HISTORY TODAY AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Masterly... This book is dynamite' - ROBERT GILDEA, author of Empires of the Mind
**Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize**
**Winner of the NYU/Axinn Foundation Prize**
A searing, landmark study of the British Empire that lays bare its pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century.
Drawing on more than a decade of research on four continents, Caroline Elkins reveals the dark heart of Britain's Empire: a racialised, systemised doctrine of unrelenting violence, which it used to secure and maintain its interests across the globe.
When Britain could no longer maintain control over that violence, it simply retreated - and sought to destroy the evidence. Legacy of Violence is a monumental achievement that explodes long-held myths and deserves the attention of anyone who seeks to understand empire's role in shaping the world today.
'Not so much a history book as a book of historical significance' BBC History Magazine
'Riveting' New Statesman
'Crucial...as unflinching as it is gripping, as carefully researched as it is urgently necessary' Jill Lepore, author of These Truths