‘POWERFUL’ FINANCIAL TIMES, 2025 BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘INNOVATIVE AND EXHILARATING’ Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
ECONOMIC PROSPERITY DOES NOT EXIST WITHOUT THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE . . .
For centuries, powerful nations have claimed they were bringing progress to the world – through empire, intervention and control. From the conquest of the Americas to colonisation across Africa and Asia, expansion was justified by the wealth it generated and the infrastructure it built. But beneath the language of growth and poverty relief lay a question of consent.
Spanning four hundred years of global history, acclaimed economist and author of The White Man’s Burden, William Easterly draws a bold contrast between conquest and commerce, challenging the idea that development can ever be imposed from above. Empires extracted wealth by force. Markets, at their best, depend on voluntary exchange between equals. Commerce – not coercion – expanded opportunity and agency to billions. Fresh, powerful and urgent, Violent Saviours shows that consent, dignity and respect must be at the centre of the global fight against poverty.
‘INNOVATIVE AND EXHILARATING’ Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
ECONOMIC PROSPERITY DOES NOT EXIST WITHOUT THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE . . .
For centuries, powerful nations have claimed they were bringing progress to the world – through empire, intervention and control. From the conquest of the Americas to colonisation across Africa and Asia, expansion was justified by the wealth it generated and the infrastructure it built. But beneath the language of growth and poverty relief lay a question of consent.
Spanning four hundred years of global history, acclaimed economist and author of The White Man’s Burden, William Easterly draws a bold contrast between conquest and commerce, challenging the idea that development can ever be imposed from above. Empires extracted wealth by force. Markets, at their best, depend on voluntary exchange between equals. Commerce – not coercion – expanded opportunity and agency to billions. Fresh, powerful and urgent, Violent Saviours shows that consent, dignity and respect must be at the centre of the global fight against poverty.
Reviews
Easterly's deep scholarship brings the story to life, celebrating the few who saw clearly, some familiar, many not. An innovative and exhilarating read
Easterly has done it again, sharply revising what we thought we knew, but didn't. He shows us the startling unity among tyrannies we imagined were distinct. A triumph of liberal thought
You must read Violent Saviours
Violent Saviors is Bill Easterly's masterpiece. It brilliantly weaves together the self-serving and arrogant histories of the conquests, enslavements and destructive 'assistance' the West has imposed on the Rest, showing the common patronizing thread that connects them and tracing all these hideous histories to the philosophies that justified them, which Easterly masterfully dissects
A nicely contrarian work of interest to aid organizations and policymakers everywhere
Powerful