Gives a sweeping account of the evolution of empire, from its origins in ancient Rome to its most recent embodiment, explaining what constitutes an empire and outlining lessons to be learned from empires of the past. By the author of The British Imperial Century, 1815-1914: A World History Perspective.

Autorentext
Timothy Parsons is a Professor of African History at Washington University. He is the author many books, including The British Imperial Century, 1815-1914: A World History Perspective, and The 1964 Army Mutinies and the Making of Modern East Africa.

Klappentext

In The Rule of Empires, Timothy Parsons gives a sweeping account of the evolution of empire from ancient Rome to its most recent twentieth-century embodiment. He explains what constitutes an empire, what empires of the past can tell us about our own historical moment, and perhaps most important, why empires always fail.

Zusammenfassung
A grand account of the evolution of empire from its origins in ancient Rome to its most recent twentieth-century embodiment, The Rule of Empires explores the historical reality of subjugation and exposes the true limits of imperial power.

Inhalt

• Introduction: The Subjects of Empire

• 1. Roman Britain: The Myth of the Civilizing Empire
• 2. Muslim Spain: Blurring Subjecthood in Imperial Al-Andalus
• 3. Spanish Peru: Empire by Franchise
• 4. Company India: Private Empire Building
• 5. Napoleonic Italy: Empire Aborted
• 6. British Kenya: The Short Life of the New Imperialism
• 7. France Under the Nazis: Imperial Endpoint

• Conclusion: Imperial Epitaph