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History Book Group

Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire

How benevolent was the rule of the British Empire? Harvard historian Caroline Elkins argues: not so much. She considers British rule over its vast empire and discovers extreme violence throughout.

Elkins won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 2006 for her history of the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya and its violent suppression by Kenya’s British rulers. Based on the release of a cache of 240,000 top secret colonial files (the “Hanslope Park Files”) in 2111, this new book expands her field of view to look at all of Britain's 37 “colonies,” documenting the extraordinary extent of violence employed by British colonial administrations to the mid-20th century—a “legalized lawlessness” that cost tens or even hundreds of thousands of colonial subjects their lives over the 200-year history of the empire.   

Because our January meeting (to discuss Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race around the World) was delayed from January 9 until February 13, our whole schedule is being pushed back one month, so our discussion of Legacy of Violence is being moved from March 6 to Monday, April 3. We are also going to meet NOT in the Community Meeting Room, but in the Seminar Room (aka the Zoom Room) on the 3rd floor West. This will allow you to take part in the discussion either in person--or via Zoom, from home or anywhere else. A Zoom link will be sent to everyone signed up closer to the actual date--so make sure to register from this page! Then you can make a game-day decision whether you want to participate in person or by Zoom. 

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