Publications

2022
Book

Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire

By: Caroline M. Elkins

Sprawling across a quarter of the world’s land mass and claiming nearly seven hundred million people, Britain’s twentieth-century empire was the largest empire in human history. For many Britons, it epitomized their nation’s cultural superiority, but what legacy did... View Details

Keywords: Imperialism; Violence; Colonialism; History; Government and Politics; Power and Influence; Race; Policy; United Kingdom

2013
Book

The Political Economy of Empire in the Early Modern World

By: Sophus A. Reinert and Pernille Røge

This volume recasts our understanding of the practical and theoretical foundations and dynamic experiences of early modern imperialism. The imperial encounter with political economy was neither uniform across political, economic, cultural, and religious constellations... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; Early Modern Imperialism; Economy; Government and Politics

April 2022
Case

The First Opium War and Global Free Trade

By: Jeremy Friedman and Allison Lazarus

The First Opium War (1839-1842) symbolized the peak of the era of European imperialism, with a political and cultural legacy that remains potent to this day. The British Empire, “acquired in a fit of absent-mindedness” as one observer famously claimed, seemed to be... View Details

Keywords: Imperialism; Narcotics; Importing; History; Globalized Markets and Industries; Trade; Social Issues

Educators

summer 1992
Book Review

Review of Predators and Prizes: American Privateering and Imperial Warfare, 1739-1748, by Carl E. Swanson

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Keywords: War; History; United States

June 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Goodbye IMF Conditions, Hello Chinese Capital: Zambia's Copper Industry and Africa's Break with Its Colonial Past

By: Rafael Di Tella, Vincent Pons, Sarah Mehta and David Lane

Over the past several decades, rapid growth in Chinese investment and trade has created for Africa a new development partner. China represents an alternative to U.S. and European nations whose past imperialism, resource avarice, and economic dictates—through the... View Details

Keywords: Copper; Imperialism; IMF; World Bank; ODA; Debt Relief; Growth and Development; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Labor and Management Relations; History; Development Economics; China; Zambia; Africa

Educators

12 Apr 2022
Book

Racism, Colonialism, and Britain's Legacy of Violence

Britain’s 20th century empire was the largest in human history, with a quarter of the world’s land and nearly 700 million people. Yet the empire drew its strength from violence. That’s the conclusion Harvard Business School Professor Caroline Elkins draws in her new... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

Awards

Pulitzer Prize

By: Caroline M. Elkins

Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya (Henry Holt, 2005). View Details

26 Sep 2021
News

Kominers’s Conundrums: Weight Weight… Don’t Tell Me!

09 Aug 2013
News

Beyond Ackman, JCP Fights for Survival

01 Sep 2015
News

What Lessons Can Presidential Candidates Learn About Leadership From Ernest Shackleton?

2022
Chapter

Fiscal Development under Colonial and Sovereign Rule

By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg

This chapter explores differences in the making of a ‘modern’ fiscal state under colonial and sovereign rule. Focusing on African and Asian colonies (1820–1970) and their respective European metropoles, it argues that while the introduction of ‘modern’... View Details

Keywords: Fiscal Modernization; Colonial Rule; Economic History; Sovereign Finance; History; Taxation; Africa; Asia

2010
Working Paper

The Insurance Industry in Brazil: A Long-term View

By: Marcelo de Paiva Abreu and Felipe Tamega Fernandes

This paper surveys the formation and development of insurance business in Brazil. It describes its origins, from the colonial times and imperial era to recent events. Particular attention is given to regulatory changes, showing how they evolved in response to... View Details

Keywords: History; Insurance; Insurance Industry; Brazil

Read Now

Spring 2018
Article

The ‘Moral Effect’ of Legalized Lawlessness:: Violence in Britain’s Twentieth Century Empire

By: Caroline M. Elkins

From 1930s Palestine to Kenya in the years following World War II, systematized violence shaped and defined much of Britain’s twentieth-century empire. Liberal authoritarianism, and with it the “moral effect” that coercion had upon colonial subjects, gave rise to the... View Details

Keywords: Colonialism; Authoritarianism; Violence; History; Great Britain

28 Feb 2010
News

America, the fragile empire

17 May 2011
News

Going, Going, Gone: Who Killed the Internet Auction?

Philippe van der Beck

Philippe van der Beck is an Assistant Professor in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches the Finance I course in the MBA required curriculum. Philippe’s research interests are in empirical asset pricing, sustainable finance, and structural estimation.... View Details

September 1995 (Revised April 1999)
Case

Exporting American Culture

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem

A large entertainment company, extensively criticized for producing violent, offensive, and anti-social material, is considering whether to sell its material to a semi-illegal operation that is beaming satellite TV into Turkey. The opportunity raises many questions... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Forecasting and Prediction; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Media; Business and Community Relations; Opportunities; Social Issues; Media and Broadcasting Industry

Educators