Slaps in the face, kicks, beatings, and other forms of run-of-the-mill violence were an everyday part of life in German South West Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century. Unearthing this culture of normalized violence in a settler colony, Violence as Usual uncovers the workings of a powerful state that was built in an improvised fashion by low-level state representatives. Marie Muschalek’s fascinating portrayal of the daily deeds of African and German men enrolled in the Landespolizei, the colonial police force, is a historical anthropology of police practice and the normalization of imperial power. Replete with anecdotes of the everyday experiences of the policemen, as well as of the colonized people and settlers, Violence as Usual re-examines fundamental questions about the relationship between power and violence.