Legacy of Violence by Caroline Elkins
Historians strive to tell history with a certain balance, giving fair hearing to actions and ideas even ones they themselves do not like or agree with.
But if you deliberately destroy archives in an attempt to erase the historical record, you will acquire a fierce and tenacious enemy who will dog you until the end of time.
Professor Elkins received a Pulitzer Prize for her first book on the end of British rule in Kenya, which documented not only the state sponsored violence of the colonial government but also the deliberate destruction and disappearance of government archives for the period. Subsequently, a lawsuit against the UK government brought to light hundreds of boxes of archival materials, “discovered” in secret archives—proving her claims beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Those unmitigated bastards.
It is fair to say that Professor Elkins has a bad attitude about the British Empire. And her current book goes broad and deep, documenting the consistent pattern of legalized violence and official lies that characterized the British Empire throughout its history.
And let’s be very clear here. Part of my family hails from Ireland. I have precisely zero sympathy for the British Empire, and I am pre-sold on the story Elkins is purveying. “Hit ‘em again, Elkins!”, I say. “Let me hold your coat while you put the boot in!”
I’m proud that Ireland was the first successful National Liberation movement of the twentieth century, however messy the process and results. But, of course, it wasn’t just Ireland, the same thing happened everywhere. Egypt. India. Palestine (where Britain brilliantly managed to get in a war with both the Arabs and the Jews). Malaya. Kenya. Jamaica. Everywhere. (And, sadly, back to Ireland again in the seventies.)
These revolutions were definitely aware of each other. Ireland inspired Indians. Indians inspired Egyptians. And with each Imperial loss, success bred success. I like that part.
Elkins takes great pains to document how the experience and practices of suppression and legalized violence spread and were copied by the British authorities across their empire. Repressive regulations were copied from one colony to another. Violent men moved across the Empire, bringing lessons learned and attitudes with them. (In one telling example, after the stunning defeat of Britain’s paramilitaries in Ireland, authorities in Palestine recruited a force of Black and Tans to suppress the Arab revolt. And following the catastrophe in Palestine, a block of these “Palestinians” were dispatched to Malaya. Sigh.)
Elkins characterizes the ideology of the British Empire as “liberal Imperialism”, a mix of capitalism, racism, and state sanctioned violence; dressed up in paternalistic, “white man’s burden” and nonsense about “rule of law”. British imperialists imagined that the empire represented the progressive values of British society, democracy, dignity, prosperity. Even today, many people still seem to believe that the British Empire was overall good for everyone.
Rubbish.
Non-white subjects had no rights at all, did not own the resources of their land, and were considered “not ready yet” for full human rights and self-determination. “Some day” the colonies will be fully English, but not soon. Meanwhile, they should be good little children, shut up, and work harder to make money for their white masters.
Contemporary apologists for Britain, and racism deniers in general will not like this book. But nevertheless, here it is, if you want the truth. With footnotes. Lots and lots of footnotes!
Of course, my own country doesn’t come off all that well. While FDR leaned toward dismantling empires–at least other country’s empires–war time diplomacy forced the US to support the reoccupation of British colonies, and then defending the British empire became part of the global cold war. Who do you think paid a big part of the cost for that?
Still, the Americans were always less than totally sympathetic to British imperial savagery, and for that reason a lot of British PR was aimed at the US as much as anyone. During the Malay war, there was even a special classification for documents that designated “do not let the Americans see this, ever”. Well, we know about it now.
It looks to me like British propaganda and misinformation was at least partly responsible for American confidence in the counterinsurgency adopted in Viet Nam. Had we had a fuller picture of what happened in Malaya, would we have done something different in Viet Nam?
For an American, the only bright spot in this grim story is the relief that it isn’t just us. Where do you think we got white supremacy, slavery, violence, and denialism from originally? From England. Not that we didn’t make it our own, to the point of shocking even the mother country at times. And our own version of “liberal imperialism” is, if anything, even more conflicted and confused than England’s. And, of course, we copied many of their methods in our own dirty wars.
For the world, the bright spot in this long tale of disaster is that the British empire is no more, and never will be reconstituted. Good riddance.
Oh, and by the way, thanks to Elkin, I now grok what George Orwell was talking about in 1984. He was talking about the violence and double think that underpinned the British Empire.
- Caroline Elkins, Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2022.
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