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Events • December 12, 2025 

# *Violent Saviors: The West’s Conquest of the Rest*

In the name of material progress, the West has sought to develop and frequently exploit the less-developed “rest.” William Easterly will draw from 400 years of history—ranging from the conquest of the Americas and the Atlantic slave trade to colonization in Asia and Africa and the invention of the Third World—to show how the West has justified different forms of intervention in the societies it has purportedly intended to improve. Easterly will explain why development based on consent, choice, and human agency is superior to an approach that neglects dignity, focuses narrowly on material improvements, and too often justifies various degrees of coercion. Deirdre McCloskey will comment on the fundamental role of freedom in development.

**Lunch to follow.**

![Violent Saviors Cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block_book_cover_1x/public/2025-11/violent-saviors-cover.jpg?itok=8g93t8a3) 

### *[Violent Saviors: The West’s Conquest of the Rest](https://www.amazon.com/Violent-Saviors-Wests-Conquest-Rest/dp/1541675754?tag=catoinstitute-20)*

In *Violent Saviors*, renowned economist William Easterly examines how the demand for agency has always been at the heart of debates on development. Spanning nearly four centuries of global history, Easterly argues that commerce, rather than conquest, could meet the need for equal rights as well as the need for prosperity. Looking to the liberal economic ideas of thinkers like Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Amartya Sen, Easterly shows how the surge in global trade has given agency to billions of people for the first time.

[Purchase Book](https://www.amazon.com/Violent-Saviors-Wests-Conquest-Rest/dp/1541675754?tag=catoinstitute-20) 

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

![William Easterly circle](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-11/william-easterly-circle.jpeg?itok=3Wga3BxP) 

##### William Easterly 

Author and Professor Emeritus of Economics, New York University

[![Dierdre N. McCloskey cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-10/dierdre-mccloskey-pic-cropped.jpg?itok=CE5OEUFL)](/people/deirdre-n-mccloskey) 

##### [Deirdre N. McCloskey](/people/deirdre-n-mccloskey)

Distinguished Scholar Isaiah Berlin Chair in Liberal Thought, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://x.com/DeirdreMcClosk) 

[![Ian Vásquez](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Ian%20Vasquez.jpg?itok=yBS_mzpm)](/people/ian-vasquez) 

##### [Ian Vásquez](/people/ian-vasquez)

Vice President for International Studies, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://x.com/vasquezian) [ 

](mailto:ivasquez@cato.org)