They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence
Lauren Benton
Mar 2024 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Raquel Beattie
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9 hr 38 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Imperial conquest and colonization depended on pervasive raiding, slaving, and plunder. European empires amassed global power by asserting a right to use unilateral force at their discretion. They Called It Peace is a panoramic history of how these routines of violence remapped the contours of empire and reordered the world from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. In an account spanning from Asia to the Americas, Lauren Benton shows how imperial violence redefined the nature of war and peace. Instead of preparing lasting peace, fragile truces ensured an easy return to war. Serial conflicts and armed interventions projected a de facto state of perpetual war across the globe. Benton describes how seemingly limited war sparked atrocities, from sudden massacres to long campaigns of dispossession and extermination. She brings vividly to life a world in which warmongers portrayed themselves as peacemakers and Europeans imagined "small" violence as essential to imperial rule and global order. Holding vital lessons for us today, They Called It Peace reveals how the imperial violence of the past has made perpetual war and the threat of atrocity endemic features of the international order.
About the author
Lauren Benton is the Barton M. Biggs Professor of History at Yale University and recipient of the Toynbee Prize for significant contributions to global history. Her books include A Search for Sovereignty and Rage for Order: The British Empire and the Origins of International Law, 1800-1850.
Raquel Beattie has narrated over fifty books from her home studio. She speaks conversational Spanish and is comfortable with beginning French. She loves spending time with her husband and three kids, getting outside in nature, hanging with friends, dark humor, and eating good food.
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