The historian Marc Morris masterfully picks out key themes and characters, from King Offa to Alfred the Great, to produce a coherent and compelling narrative of this turbulent time.

A vivid, sharply drawn story of seven centuries of profound political change, told with wit, authority and shrewd historical judgement. The Anglo-Saxons is a superbly clear and evocative journey through England's beginnings, and Marc Morris is a wonderful guide.

This is a much-needed book - an accessible, eminently readable account of the peoples who first made England. It's a gripping story, beautifully told!

A gripping, richly peopled, epic narrative... In stunning prose and drawing on staggering research, Elkins uncovers the reality of routine and ruthlessly violent suspension of law and militarized policing as imperial personnel and practices moved from crisis to crisis around the globe

In nothing was the British Empire more successful than its skilful concealment of the violence that it unleashed across the globe, over centuries. Caroline Elkins' Legacy of Violence is a laudably ambitious attempt at unearthing this hidden legacy, the bitter fruits of which are becoming more and more visible every day

Illuminating and authoritative... The repression and violence Elkins narrates on an epic scale matters because they continue to reverberate tragically in our global present

A work of deep archival achievement that creates a historical argument that is courageous and ambitious... This is a text for our times

A thumping great study by a heavyweight academic historian

A clear, incisive account of the way in which the British maintained public order in the colonies through 'lawful lawlessness'... An exceedingly valuable book on the dark side of the British Empire

Legacy of Violence is a formidable piece of research that sets itself the ambition of identifying the character of British power over the course of two centuries and four continents... this history could not be more timely

Legacy of Violence...is deeply researched... a powerful, compelling read

Fascinating... [Legacy of Violence] is a harrowing read, and one that brings the violence of empire sharply into focus

Vividly written... [Elkins] brings together...episodes in order to draw out what she sees as their commonalities in British imperial doctrine

[Elkins'] magnum opus... Elkins' achievement is to chronicle how makeshift responses to rebellion evolved into a chillingly standardised playbook for the use of force

Legacy of Violence is beautifully written and follows through on its arguments doggedly... This is an important book that deserves to be read by everyone who wants to understand and argue against the current attempt to reinvigorate the romance of the British Empire

A dark, riveting book... her [Elkins'] method is what gives the book its intensity

Fascinating... a real page-turner... the writing is backed up with considerable academic research... the evidence of systematic oppression, presented as powerfully and relentlessly as it is here, will be difficult to resist

Not so much a history book as a book of historical significance

No other English-language biography has so successfully given us a portrait of him as man and monarch ... superb.

The best single-volume account of the reign in any language

Authoritative ... Mansel is ideally positioned to examine Louis' record ... Time and space both yield before Mansel's authorial ambition

A superb biography ... wonderfully detailed and fluent ... Mansel is alive to every nuance