Violent Saviours
On sale
5th November 2026
Price: £12.99
‘POWERFUL’ FINANCIAL TIMES, 2025 BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘INNOVATIVE AND EXHILARATING’ Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
Prosperity cannot be forced, it can only be freely chosen.
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. But rarely did it come with consent.
Spanning four hundred years, acclaimed economist and author of The White Man’s Burden, William Easterly challenges the idea that development can ever be imposed from above. Eye-opening and urgent, Violent Saviours shows only commerce – not coercion – can overcome global poverty.
‘INNOVATIVE AND EXHILARATING’ Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
Prosperity cannot be forced, it can only be freely chosen.
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. But rarely did it come with consent.
Spanning four hundred years, acclaimed economist and author of The White Man’s Burden, William Easterly challenges the idea that development can ever be imposed from above. Eye-opening and urgent, Violent Saviours shows only commerce – not coercion – can overcome global 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