Election Violence in Zimbabwe by Vimbai Chaumba Kwashirai accomplishes what the author sets out to do in devastating detail: document and describe the central role that violence has played in elections in Zimbabwe since the onset of majority rule. It is ambitious in its historical scope; much of the research on election violence in Zimbabwe begins in the better-documented period after the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999. It is also ambitious in putting the use of violence in each election into a broader political context and set of electoral strategies. It is a well-researched and detailed work of political history that adds nuance to the record on an important case that is often given a superficial treatment in the literature on election violence.

The book is organized around ten substantive chapters, one for each election from 1980 to 2013. The description of patterns and key events of violence in each election is a comprehensive account of a difficult subject. The research draws on a rich set of archival sources, especially from the 1980s and 1990s, that give a new look into how violence was carried out in these less-studied elections. Some of the most valuable material comes from interpretation of specific violent events that Kwashirai uses to illustrate how patterns in violence shifted in different periods: from pre-