Commissioned Book Review: Caroline Elkins, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire
| Author | Farah Adeed |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221117450 |
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Review |
Political Studies Review
2023, Vol. 21(1) NP27 –NP28
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1117450PSW0010.1177/14789299221117450Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2022
Commissioned Book Review
Legacy of Violence: A History of the
British Empire by Caroline Elkins.
New York: Alfred A. Knope, 2022 875 pp.,
$37.50, ISBN 9780307272423.
Legacy of Violence: A History of the British
Empire by Caroline Elkins is a well-researched
and ambitious book. Elkins dissects the works
of social historians and political theorists and
explores archives and oral histories in four
continents. Although the book is about the
crimes of the Empire, the main focus is not on
the economic extraction of the colonies. She
acknowledges that economic extraction is ‘a
cornerstone of any story of Britain’s empire’,
but clarifies that this is not the focus of her
study (p. 16).
Elkins challenges the existing literature and
argues that the Empire was no less violent than
its competitors. However, it was only Britain
that became ‘metonymic with imperial excep-
tion’ (p. 23). The British empire used liberal-
ism’s virtues in a way that looked like some
unfortunate but necessary steps towards moder-
nity. Elkins’ chief argument is that it was a cl ear-
headed strain of moralizing superiority that
not only convinced the successive generations
of statesmen and politicians from Benjamin
Disraeli to Clement Attlee of the ‘backwardness’
of the subjects but also encouraged them to ‘civ-
ilize’ them. She investigates the Indian Mutiny,
the Morant Bay Rebellion, the South African
War, the Irish War of Independence, the Arab
Revolt, Caribbean strikes, the Zionist Uprising
and states of emergency in Malaya, Kenya and
Cyprus, to expose the contradictory and violent
nature ‘liberal imperialism’.
Elkins contextualizes the actions of men like
Douglas Duff who used violent metho ds during
the Irish War of Independence and was then
sent to Palestine to give the same treatment
to the Arab nationalists. In India, Brigadier-
General Reginald Dyer ordered to open fire at
the unarmed civilians at Jallianwala Bagh. As a
result, approximately 1650 rounds were dis-
charged by 50 Gurkha and Sikh riflemen, killing
nearly 400 Indians. There were at least 1200
civilians who got injured and Dyer or his men
made ‘no attempt to assist those who survived
the massacre’ (p. 132). Histories of these stiff-
necked men’s criminal actions are abundant, and
what differentiates Elkins’ work from the exist-
ing literature is her persuasive claim that vio-
lence was ‘intrinsic to Britain’s civilizing
mission’ and that it was wrapped in the ‘velvet
glove’ of liberal reform (p. 28).
The Empire’s civilizing mission was
‘reformist’ in its claims but in practice, it was
‘brutal’. The violence took the form of ‘electric
shock, fecal, and water torture, castration . . .
sodomy with broken bottles and vermin; forced
marches through landmines; shin screwing. . . ’
(p. 28). Violence in the Empire was not just an
occasional means to liberal imperialism’s end
rather it was ‘a means and an end for as long as
the British Empire remained alive’ (p. 13).
As a professional historian, Elkins recog-
nizes the agency of the subjects, stating ‘resist-
ance and protest came in many forms, from
subversive labor activities like foot-dragging,
crop destruction, and strikes to deploying the
civilizing mission’s own logic to demand free-
dom and equal rights’ (p. 14) from indigenous
populations. To suppress these voices, the
Empire used violence and when ordinary codes
and regulations were not helpful, it turned to
‘legalized lawlessness,’ meaning the executive
branch of the government was empowered to
impose martial law, states of emergency and
make any new law necessary to cover-up the
use of violence.
Elkins discusses the legacies of the
Empire in an evocative manner. The
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