Violence and Colonial Order: Police, Workers and Protest in the European Colonial Empires, 1918–1940
Author(s): Martin Thomas (Author)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: November 12, 2012
Language: English
Print length: 540 pages
ISBN-10: 0521768411
ISBN-13: 9780521768412
Book Description
This is a pioneering, multi-empire account of the relationship between the politics of imperial repression and the economic structures of European colonies between the two World Wars. Ranging across colonial Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, Martin Thomas explores the structure of local police forces, their involvement in colonial labour control and the containment of uprisings and dissent. His work sheds new light on broader trends in the direction and intent of colonial state repression. It shows that the management of colonial economies, particularly in crisis conditions, took precedence over individual imperial powers’ particular methods of rule in determining the forms and functions of colonial police actions. The politics of colonial labour thus became central to police work, with the depression years marking a watershed not only in local economic conditions but also in the breakdown of the European colonial order more generally.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“In a colonial system threatened by economic crisis, labour protest and rising nationalism, efforts to safeguard the colonial political economy provided the key to the policing of the empire. Martin Thomas’ impressively wide-ranging and thoroughly documented study for the first time analyses the links between colonial policing, political economy and imperial policy in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.” Robert Aldrich, Professor of European History, University of Sydney
“Violence and the Colonial Order testifies to the ability of comparative historical inquiry to develop new integrative approaches to colonial governance, political economies, and coercive labour regimes. In taking its analysis of colonial policing beyond its use in political repression and into the realm of commodity production and worker discipline, Thomas’ masterful case studies shed invaluable light on both local particularities and cross-colonial overlaps alike.” Elizabeth Buettner, Senior Lecturer in Modern British and Imperial History, The University of York
“Martin Thomas has produced a remarkable monograph on policing and colonial violence during the inter-war years. Comparative in approach, it spans several colonies, countries and continents, and combines careful micro-level case studies with an over-arching and persuasive thesis concerning the centrality of political-economic conditions. It is a wonderful achievement.” Dr Talbot Imlay, History Department, Université Laval, Québec
“Highly recommended.” Choice
“Martin Thomas’s remarkable Violence and Colonial Order succeeds in breaking new ground thanks in part to a breathtakingly comparative approach … His fine book will be of interest to a wide range of students and scholars, from world historians to labor, police, and colonial historians.” Eric T. Jennings, American Historical Review
Book Description
A striking new interpretation of colonial policing and political violence in three empires between the two world wars.
About the Author
Martin Charles Thomas is Professor of Colonial History in the Department of History at the University of Exeter. He is a director of the University’s Centre for the Study of War, State and Society, an interdisciplinary research centre that supports research into the impact of armed conflict and collective violence on societies and communities.
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