Overview

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.Volume II: The History of Empires tracks the protean history of political domination from the very beginnings of state formation in the Bronze Age up to the present. Case studies deal with the full range of the historical experience of empire, from the realms of the Achaemenids and Asoka to the empires of Mali and Songhay, and from ancient Rome and China to the Mughals, American settler colonialism, and the Soviet Union. Forty-five chapters detailing the history of individual empires are tied together by a set of global synthesizing surveys that structure the world history of empire into eight chronological phases.

Full Product Details

Author:   Peter Fibiger Bang (Associate Professor of History, Associate Professor of History, University of Copenhagen) ,  C. A. Bayly (Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge) ,  Walter Scheidel (Professor of Classics and, by courtesy, History, Professor of Classics and, by courtesy, History, Stanford University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 19.80cm , Height: 9.90cm , Length: 27.40cm
Weight:   3.520kg
ISBN:  

9780197533970

ISBN 10:   0197533973
Pages:   1856
Publication Date:   31 March 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

"Volume I List of Contributors Prolegomena PETER FIBIGER BANG The Imperial Experience 1. Empire - a World History: Anatomy and Concept, Theory and Synthesis PETER FIBIGER BANG 2. The Scale of Empire: Territory, Population, Distribution WALTER SCHEIDEL 3. The Evolution of Geopolitics and Imperialism in Interpolity Systems CHRISTOPHER CHASE-DUNN AND DMYTRO KHUTKYY 4. Military Organization IAN MORRIS 5. The Political Economy of Empire: ""Imperial Capital"" and the Formation of Central and Regional Elites JOHN HALDON 6. Imperial Monumentalism, Pageantry, Styles of Comportment and Forms of Consumption: The Inter-Imperial Obelisk in Istanbul CECILY J. HILSDALE 7. Law, Bureaucracy and the Practice of Government and Rule CAROLINE HUMFRESS 8. Mapping, Registering, and Ordering: Time, Space, and Knowledge LAURA HOSTETLER 9. Empire and Religion AMIRA K. BENNISON 10. Literature of Empire: Difference, Creativity, and Cosmopolitanism JAVED MAJEED 11. Empires and the Politics of Difference: Social Hierarchies and Cultural Identities JANE BURBANK AND FREDERICK COOPER 12. Resistance, Rebellion and the Subaltern KIM A. WAGNER 13. Imperial Metabolism: Empire as a Process of Energy Transfers ALF HORNBORG 14. Ecology: Environments and Empires in World History, 3000 BCE - c.1900 CE EUGENE ANDERSON AND JAMES BEATTIE 15. Memories of Empire: Literature and Art, Nostalgia and Trauma PHIROZE VASUNIA 16. The End of Empires JOHN. A. HALL Volume II The History of Empires List of Contributors Prolegomena PETER FIBIGER BANG Part 1. Bronze to Iron Age The Near-Eastern ""Invention"" of Empire (3rd Millennium to 300 BCE) PETER FIBIGER BANG 1. Egypt, Old to New Kingdom (2686-1069 BCE) JUAN CARLOS MORENO GARCÍA 2. The Sargonic and Ur III Empires PIOTR STEINKELLER 3. Empires of Western Asia and the Assyrian World Empire GOJKO BARJAMOVIC 4. The Achaemenid Persian Empire: From the Medes to Alexander MATTHEW W. WATERS 5. Ancient Mediterranean City-State Empires: Athens, Carthage, Early Rome WALTER SCHEIDEL Part 2. The Classical Age The Formation of Large World Empires on the Margins of Eurasia: The Mediterranean and China (323 BCE-600 CE) PETER FIBIGER BANG 6. Hellenistic Empire: The Dynasties of the Ptolemies and the Seleucids CHRISTELLE FISCHER-BOVET 7. The Mauryan Empire HIMANSHU PRABHA RAY 8. The First East Asian Empires: Qin and Han MARK EDWARD LEWIS 9. The Roman Empire PETER FIBIGER BANG 10. The Parthian and Sasanian Empires MATTHEW P. CANEPA 11. The Kushan Empire CRAIG BENJAMIN Part 3. The Ecumenic Turn Eclipse of the Old World and the Rise of Islam (600-1200) PETER FIBIGER BANG 12. The Caliphate ANDREW MARSHAM 13. The Tang Empire MARK EDWARD LEWIS 14. Srivijaya JOHN N. MIKSIC 15. The Khmer Empire MICHAEL D. COE 16. The Byzantine Empire, 641-1453 AD ANTHONY KALDELLIS 17. Charlemagne, the Carolingian Empire and Its Successors ROSAMOND McKITTERICK Part 4. The Mongol Moment The Rise of Ghenghis Khan and the Central Asian Steppe Followed by Regional Reassertion PETER FIBIGER BANG 18. The Mongol Empire and the Unification of Eurasia NIKOLAY KRADIN 19. The Ming Empire DAVID M. ROBINSON 20. The Delhi Sultanate as Empire SUNIL KUMAR 21. Caliphs, Popes, Emperors, Kings and Sultans: The Imperial Commonwealth of Medieval Islam and Western Christendom JACOB TULLBERG 22. The Venetian Empire LUCIANO PEZZOLO 23. The Mali and Songhay Empires BRUCE S. HALL Part 5. Another World The Separate but Parallel Path of Imperial Formations in the Precolonial Americas PETER FIBIGER BANG 24. The Aztec Empire MICHAEL E. SMITH AND MAËLLE SERGHERAERT 25. The Inca Empire R. ALAN COVEY Part 6. The Great Confluence The Culmination of Universal Empires and the Conquest of the New World: Agrarian Consolidation and the Rise of European Commercial and Colonial Empires (1450-1750) PETER FIBIGER BANG 26. The Ottoman Empire DARIUSZ KOLODZIEJCZYK 27. The Mughal Empire RAJEEV KINRA 28. The Habsburg Monarchy and the Spanish Empire, 1492-1757 JOSEP M. DELGADO AND JOSEP M. FRADERA 29. The Qing Empire: Three Governments in One State and the Stability of Manchu Rule PAMELA KYLE CROSSLEY 30. The Portuguese Empire (1415-1822) FRANCISCO BETHENCOURT 31. The Dutch Seaborne Empire: Qua Patet Orbis LEONARD BLUSSÉ 32. The First British Empire: Atlantic Empire and the Peoples of the British Monarchy, 1603-1815 NICHOLAS CANNY Part 7. The Global Turn The Age of European Colonialism, Subjection of Old Agrarian Empires to the European-Led World Economy and Nationalist Secessions (1750-1914) PETER FIBIGER BANG 33. Deconstructing the British Empire: Between Repression and Reform C. A. BAYLY 34. An Imperial Nation-State: France and Its Empires DAVID TODD 35. The Russian Empire, 1453-1917 DOMINIC LIEVEN 36. Late Spanish Empire: Reform and Crisis, 1762-1898 JOSEP M. FRADERA 37. US Expansionism during the Nineteenth Century: ""Manifest Destiny"" AMY S. GREENBERG 38. The Kinetic Empires of Native American Nomads PEKKA HÄMÄLÄINEN 39. Ottoman Turkey and Qing China: Response and Decline, 1774-1937 MICHAEL A. REYNOLDS AND RANA MITTER 40. The Sokoto Caliphate MURRAY LAST Part 8. The 20th Century The Collapse of Colonial Empires and the Rise of Super-Powers PETER FIBIGER BANG 41. The German and Japanese Empires: Great Power Competition and the World Wars DANIEL HEDINGER AND MORITZ VON BRESCIUS 42. Decolonization and Neocolonialism STUART WARD 43. The Soviet Union GEOFFREY HOSKING 44. ""America's Global Imperium"" ANDREW PRESTON 45. Epilogue: Beyond Empire? FREDERICK COOPER Index of Places, Names and Events"

Reviews

The juxtaposition of various empires makes fascinating reading. These very engaging volumes will be a delightful read for any scholars interested in the history of empires. They will also make an excellent addition to any collection as a good general study of empires and an excellent starting point for research into specific empires. * W. J. Rafter, CHOICE * The two volumes that form The Oxford World History of Empire successfully provide a nuanced and critical understanding and analysis of the empire project. The impression left with the reader at the end of the two volumes is a crucial understanding of imperialism. By shifting the gaze away from Eurocentric frameworks, we are provided with a significant insight into the formation of new empires and dynasties across the globe and throughout time. Perhaps of most significance, these volumes, by placing European colonialism into a global context reveal not only its short-lived and fragile nature, but also point out that imperialism was not a recent phenomenon, in fact the impact of empire has been strong and enduring throughout history. * History: The Journal of the Historical Association * The juxtaposition of various empires makes fascinating reading. These very engaging volumes will be a delightful read for any scholars interested in the history of empires. They will also make an excellent addition to any collection as a good general study of empires and an excellent starting point for research into specific empires. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *

The juxtaposition of various empires makes fascinating reading. These very engaging volumes will be a delightful read for any scholars interested in the history of empires. They will also make an excellent addition to any collection as a good general study of empires and an excellent starting point for research into specific empires. * W. J. Rafter, CHOICE * The two volumes that form The Oxford World History of Empire successfully provide a nuanced and critical understanding and analysis of the empire project. The impression left with the reader at the end of the two volumes is a crucial understanding of imperialism. By shifting the gaze away from Eurocentric frameworks, we are provided with a significant insight into the formation of new empires and dynasties across the globe and throughout time. Perhaps of most significance, these volumes, by placing European colonialism into a global context reveal not only its short-lived and fragile nature, but also point out that imperialism was not a recent phenomenon, in fact the impact of empire has been strong and enduring throughout history. * History: The Journal of the Historical Association * The juxtaposition of various empires makes fascinating reading. These very engaging volumes will be a delightful read for any scholars interested in the history of empires. They will also make an excellent addition to any collection as a good general study of empires and an excellent starting point for research into specific empires. Highly recommended. * CHOICE * A veritable milestone-a project bringing together the top authorities in academe for a discussion on divergence and commonality of empires across history. The dimensions here are truly global unlike the Eurocentric framework that blighted empire studies from 30 years ago. In that sense and in many other ways, this History is unsurpassed. * Explorations in World History * The resulting structure of this work not only effectively displays a remarkably consistent interdisciplinary conversation, but also facilitates the critical discussion of different approaches to the issue of 'empire'... Together, the two volumes present a useful and comprehensive state of the art of 'imperial histories', providing plenty of food for thought for scholars working in the area, and abundant material to support a more nuanced and critical understanding and teaching of a crucial and contested field, whose importance goes well beyond academic research. * The English Historical Review *

The two volumes that form The Oxford World History of Empire successfully provide a nuanced and critical understanding and analysis of the empire project. The impression left with the reader at the end of the two volumes is a crucial understanding of imperialism. By shifting the gaze away from Eurocentric frameworks, we are provided with a significant insight into the formation of new empires and dynasties across the globe and throughout time. Perhaps of most significance, these volumes, by placing European colonialism into a global context reveal not only its short-lived and fragile nature, but also point out that imperialism was not a recent phenomenon, in fact the impact of empire has been strong and enduring throughout history. * History: The Journal of the Historical Association * The juxtaposition of various empires makes fascinating reading. These very engaging volumes will be a delightful read for any scholars interested in the history of empires. They will also make an excellent addition to any collection as a good general study of empires and an excellent starting point for research into specific empires. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *

The juxtaposition of various empires makes fascinating reading. These very engaging volumes will be a delightful read for any scholars interested in the history of empires. They will also make an excellent addition to any collection as a good general study of empires and an excellent starting point for research into specific empires. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *

Author Information

Peter Fibiger Bang is Associate Professor of History at the University of Copenhagen. C. A. Bayly was the Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge. Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, and a Kennedy-Grossman Fellow in Human Biology at Stanford University.

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