A celebrated economist explores the relationship between liberalism and solving the problem of global poverty.

'AN INNOVATIVE AND EXHILARATING READ' Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics

Economic development is not really development without consent.

For centuries, the developed Western world has exploited the less-developed 'Rest' in the name of progress, conquering the Americas, driving the Atlantic slave trade, and colonizing Africa and Asia. Throughout, the West has justified this global conquest by the

alleged material gains it brought to the conquered. But they overlooked the demand for self-determination - and not just relief from poverty.

Renowned economist and author of The White Man's Burden William Easterly examines how the demand for agency has always been at the heart of debates on development. Spanning four centuries of global history, Easterly argues that commerce, rather than conquest, provide equal rights as well as prosperity. Tracing the economic ideas underpinning the long debate between conquest and commerce, Easterly shows how it is the surge in global trade that has given agency to billions of people for the first time.

Asserting a new and urgent perspective on global economics, Violent Saviours shows that the demands for consent, dignity and respect must be at the centre of the global fight against poverty.

Details

ISBN13: 9781399811224
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 448
Edition:
Publication Date: 17 Feb 2026
Publisher: John Murray Press
Publication City, Country: United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 23.2(H)x15.4(L)x4(W)540
Weight (gm): 540

Author Biography

William Easterly is a professor of economics at New York University and codirector of the NYU Development Research Institute. He is the author of four books, including The Tyranny of Experts and The White Man's Burden. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. He lives in New York.

Reviews

Powerful -- Financial Times, Books of the Year
Easterly's deep scholarship brings the story to life, celebrating the few who saw clearly, some familiar, many not. An innovative and exhilarating read -- Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
You must read Violent Saviours -- Stephen Haber, Stanford University
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 -- Deirdre McCloskey, Cato Institute
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 -- Charles Calomiris, Columbia Business School
A nicely contrarian work of interest to aid organizations and policymakers everywhere * Kirkus *