Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference

Professors Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper deviate from the traditional narrative about the birth and development of the nation-state. Both authors contend that a world of bounded and unitary states interacting with other equivalent states dates from 1948 C.E. rather than 1648 C.E. and the Treaty of Westphalia. For this reason, professors Burbank and Cooper explore instead the rise and fall of specific empires, their imaginary, their interaction with each other, and their respective repertoires of power.Professors Burbank and Cooper demonstrate convincingly that throughout history, most people have lived in empires that did not aim to represent a single nation. Unlike nation-states that tend to homogenize those inside their polity, empires treat different nations within their polity differently. Conflicts among empires, resistance of conquered people, and rebellions of settlers were some key factors in any cost-benefit analysis of empire-building and sustenance.To their credit, professors Burbank and Cooper clearly explain the vertical nature of power relations within empires, as leaders try to recruit reliable intermediaries to manage distant territories and achieve contingent accommodation to their rule. Empires used a wide variety of repertoires of rule such as reliance on a class of loyal, trained officials, empowerment of (select) citizens, marriage politics, and tribal allegiances to secure these essential intermediaries. Both authors also explore in much detail how empires vied with each other to become or remain the top "dog" over time. Imperial strategies such as restriction of competitive empires' connections, imperialism of free trade, and alliance of different empires against one or more other empires were in use at the intersection of empires.In conclusion, professors Burbank and Cooper give their audience a great opportunity to broaden their horizon by considering an alternative read on the history of humanity. As a side note, History could produce a new series on empires, states, and political imagination as a complement to its existing series "Engineering an Empire."

This book is a must have for AP World History teachers. It nails all the essential comparisons from the Course and Exam Description. A quick glance of the Table of Contents shows how useful it would be. It probably goes into more detail than most students would need for AP, but it certainly could be used by students if they were doing a case study of Empires and a teacher wanted to use a jigsaw approach. Useful maps and timelines to keep your empires and dynasties straight. Geared more for teachers and history buffs than students, but I would not hesitate to assign a 20-30 page swath for students involved in a case study. Definitely handy for putting together a lecture or presentation.

For seller's delivery, the book has been delivered as promissed: great shipping speeding and well above average customer service.For the book itself, I found it the most interesting that chapter one compares the Rome empire with the Chinese empire in terms of political stability and unification. Chapters devoting to other civilizations are of equal significance. The whole book is well written and structure. It is a fun read.

While over the Xmas holidays I didn't have time to do a careful reading of this interesting book, my skimming & scanning of it assures me that this book will satisfy my earlier expectations from other reviewers' comments. I would certainly recommend this scholarly work to anyone interested in understanding how empires have risen and fallen throughout historical period.

This is an excellent regional approach text on the interrelatedness of empires across space and time. It is not intended as a survey text but as a supplement for courses in WH. I recommend you use this book for notes on preparing AP WH essays on change over time and how empires are similar/different along cross-regional connections. I must for any serious AP instructor.

guter Zustand & schnelle Lieferung

I bought this book as a text to accompany a Master's Degree unit on Empires. I love to read history books but my pet hate is how they are rarely written in logical sequences and this book falls into that category. Rather than discussing say the Roman Empire in logical stages - its emergence, how it sustained itself, the differences in how different Emperors ran it, the problems it had, and then its retraction, they discuss it in categories such as its Economy, War and Religion and then go through each stage of the Empire and the Emperors within that category. E.g. Ceasar ran the economy this way, Augustine this way, etc, etc. whereas I would prefer a section just on Ceasar with subcategories of each subject of Economy, War, Empire Building, Religion, Politics, issues... It drives me crazy that all history texts and essays don't logically separate eras or sections properly - it makes it difficult to remember what happened when and they become confusing to read. While the authors are writing how the discipline of history tends to write overall, I wish someone would start writing history differently and more logically!

The quality of the book was so bad. Most pages of the book were highlighted to the extent that reading the book was troublesome

Excellent, comprehensive read!

I bought this for my current OU module as the reviews were good, even though it was a bit expensive. Having started to dip into it, I am so pleased to have bought it. It is clearly set out and easy to read; it's proving extremely useful and interesting. I've already referenced it in my recent essay and I can see, I'll be referencing it regularly.