Description
This is the first world history of empire, reaching from the third millennium BCE to the present. By combining synthetic surveys, thematic comparative essays, and numerous chapters on specific empires, its two volumes provide unparalleled coverage of imperialism throughout history and across continents, from Asia to Europe and from Africa to the Americas. Only a few decades ago empire was believed to be a thing of the past; now it is clear that it has been and remains one of the most enduring forms of political organization and power. We cannot understand the dynamics and resilience of empire without moving decisively beyond the study of individual cases or particular periods, such as the relatively short age of European colonialism. The history of empire, as these volumes amply demonstrate, needs to be drawn on the much broader canvas of global history.Volume I: The Imperial Experience is dedicated to synthesis and comparison. Following a comprehensive theoretical survey and bold world history synthesis, fifteen chapters analyze and explore the multifaceted experience of empire across cultures and through the ages. The broad range of perspectives includes: scale, world systems and geopolitics, military organization, political economy and elite formation, monumental display, law, mapping and registering, religion, literature, the politics of difference, resistance, energy transfers, ecology, memories, and the decline of empires. This broad set of topics is united by the central theme of power, examined under four headings: systems of power, cultures of power, disparities of power, and memory and decline. Taken together, these chapters offer a comprehensive and unique view of the imperial experience in world history.
Table of Contents
Vol. I - The Imperial Experience List of ContributorsProlegomenaPETER FIBIGER BANG1. Empire - a World History: Anatomy and Concept, Theory and SynthesisPETER FIBIGER BANG2. The Scale of Empire: Territory, Population, DistributionWALTER SCHEIDEL3. The Evolution of Geopolitics and Imperialism in Interpolity SystemsCHRISTOPHER CHASE-DUNN AND DMYTRO KHUTKYY4. Military OrganizationIAN MORRIS5. The Political Economy of Empire: "Imperial Capital" and the Formation of Central and Regional ElitesJOHN HALDON6. Imperial Monumentalism, Pageantry, Styles of Comportment and Forms of Consumption: The Inter-Imperial Obelisk in IstanbulCECILY J. HILSDALE7. Law, Bureaucracy and the Practice of Government and RuleCAROLINE HUMFRESS8. Mapping, Registering, and Ordering: Time, Space, and KnowledgeLAURA HOSTETLER9. Empire and ReligionAMIRA K. BENNISON10. Literature of Empire: Difference, Creativity, and CosmopolitanismJAVED MAJEED11. Empires and the Politics of Difference: Social Hierarchies and Cultural IdentitiesJANE BURBANK AND FREDERICK COOPER12. Resistance, Rebellion and the SubalternKIM A. WAGNER13. Imperial Metabolism: Empire as a Process of Energy TransfersALF HORNBORG14. Ecology: Environments and Empires in World History, 3000 BCE - c.1900 CEEUGENE ANDERSON AND JAMES BEATTIE15. Memories of Empire: Literature and Art, Nostalgia and TraumaPHIROZE VASUNIA16. The End of EmpiresJOHN. A. HALL
