The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH) is pleased to invite you to a discussion of the book "They Called It Peace. Worlds of Imperial Violence" with author Lauren Benton.
The FMSH and the DÉCRYPT program continue their series of meetings devoted to major voices in international research. This second session will feature historian Lauren Benton discussing her book They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence, as well as journalist Eleanor Beardsley. In this book, Lauren Benton shows how European empires built their power by making violence an ordinary instrument of government, legitimized in the name of peace and order. Across five centuries of history, from Asia to the Americas, she traces how this violence blurred the boundaries between war and peace, ultimately inscribing a state of quasi-permanent conflict at the heart of contemporary international order. The meeting will be held in English.
About the book
In They Called It Peace. Worlds of Imperial Violence (Princeton University Press, 2024), Lauren Benton traces five centuries of imperial violence, from Asia to the Americas. She demonstrates how European empires shaped a regime of perpetual war, concealed behind the language of peace and order: raids, massacres, and campaigns of extermination were described as necessary "small wars," presented as humanitarian interventions rather than acts of war. This masterful book reveals how this legacy continues to structure contemporary international order — and how imperial violence remains at the heart of the world we inhabit.
Credits: © Princeton University Press
About the speakers
Lauren Benton studied economics at Harvard University before obtaining, in 1987, a PhD in anthropology and history from Johns Hopkins University. Her early work, dedicated to informal economy workers, resulted in a book on sweatshops in Spain and a landmark study on the destruction of Afro-Uruguayan neighborhoods in Montevideo. Since 2001, she has established herself as one of the leading specialists in global legal history. Author or co-editor of seven books devoted to European empires, she has notably worked on questions of sovereignty, conquest, slavery and abolition, war and peace, as well as on the history of international order. Winner of the Toynbee Prize in 2019, which recognizes major contributions to world history, Lauren Benton has taught at MIT, New York University (NYU), and Vanderbilt University. She also served as president of the American Society for Legal History. She currently holds the Barton M. Biggs Chair and is a professor of history and law at Yale University.
Eleanor Beardsley, born in South Carolina, holds a bachelor's degree in European history and French, an honorary doctorate in humanities from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, as well as a master's degree in international business from the University of South Carolina. She is a correspondent in Paris for National Public Radio, where she covers various aspects of French society, politics, economy, culture, and gastronomy. Eleanor Beardsley has contributed to National Public Radio's coverage of events that have marked the European continent over the past decade. From terrorist attacks to the migration crisis, she has notably covered the arrival of Syrian refugees in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Sweden, and France.
About the DÉCRYPT program
From the "global civilization initiative" advanced by China to the "civilization of civilizations" promoted by Russia, through the U.S. State Department's call for "seeking civilizational allies in Europe," the reference to the notion of civilization structures many political discourses and permeates collective imaginaries. What representations of the world underpin the civilizational narratives conveyed by a growing number of international actors? Who articulates them, and what mechanisms govern their production, dissemination, or contestation? How do they intertwine with conflict dynamics and reconfigure both the analysis of global stakes, models of their governance, and more broadly, the notion of universal norms? The DÉCRYPT program (Framework for the Study of Crises and Civilizational Narratives through Multidisciplinarity and Field Research), led by INALCO with a consortium of fifteen partners and supported by France 2030, aims to shed light on these issues by bringing together area studies and global studies. Drawing on the humanities, social sciences, and data analysis, DÉCRYPT produces original and empirically grounded research. It aims to inform public action and widely disseminate its findings to contribute to a critical understanding of the interactions between civilizational narratives and contemporary crises.
Source: paris.fr — photo: © DR