Cities of Empire


Book Description

"Originally published in the U.K. in 2014 under the title Ten cities that made an empire, by Allen Lane, London."




How to Hide an Empire


Book Description

Named one of the ten best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune A Publishers Weekly best book of 2019 | A 2019 NPR Staff Pick A pathbreaking history of the United States’ overseas possessions and the true meaning of its empire We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an “empire,” exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories—the islands, atolls, and archipelagos—this country has governed and inhabited? In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light. We travel to the Guano Islands, where prospectors collected one of the nineteenth century’s most valuable commodities, and the Philippines, site of the most destructive event on U.S. soil. In Puerto Rico, Immerwahr shows how U.S. doctors conducted grisly experiments they would never have conducted on the mainland and charts the emergence of independence fighters who would shoot up the U.S. Congress. In the years after World War II, Immerwahr notes, the United States moved away from colonialism. Instead, it put innovations in electronics, transportation, and culture to use, devising a new sort of influence that did not require the control of colonies. Rich with absorbing vignettes, full of surprises, and driven by an original conception of what empire and globalization mean today, How to Hide an Empire is a major and compulsively readable work of history.




Empire City


Book Description

From the author of Youngblood comes a “brilliant and daring” (Phil Klay, award-winning author of Redeployment) novel following a group of super-powered soldiers and civilians as they navigate an imperial America on the precipice of a major upheaval—for fans of The Fortress of Solitude and The Plot Against America. Thirty years after its great triumph in Vietnam, the United States has again become mired in an endless foreign war overseas. Stories of super soldiers known as the Volunteers tuck in little American boys and girls every night. Yet domestic politics are aflame—an ex-military watchdog group clashes with police while radical terrorists threaten to expose government experiments within the veteran rehabilitation colonies. Halfway between war and peace, the Volunteers find themselves waiting for orders in the vast American city-state, Empire City. There they encounter a small group of civilians who know the truth about their powers, including Sebastian Rios, a young bureaucrat wrestling with survivor guilt, and Mia Tucker, a wounded army pilot-turned-Wall Street banker. Meanwhile, Jean-Jacques Saint-Preux, a Haitian American Volunteer from the International Legion, decides he’ll do whatever it takes to return to the front lines. Through it all, a controversial retired general emerges as a frontrunner in the presidential campaign, promising to save the country from itself. Her election would mean unprecedented military control over the country, with promises of security and stability—but at what cost? “A passionate, scary, wise, and perhaps even prophetic novel” (Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried), Empire City is a rousing vision of an alternate—yet all too familiar—America on the brink written by a “preeminent voice in American writing” (Sara Novic, author of Girl at War).




The Empire in One City?


Book Description

A collection of essays that demonstrates that the imperial dimension deserves more prevalence in both academic and popular representations of Liverpool's past. It covers a wide range of economic, social, cultural and political themes within Liverpool's imperial history.




Ten Cities that Made an Empire


Book Description

Since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 and the end days of Empire, Britain's colonial past has been the subject of passionate debate. Tristram Hunt goes beyond the now familiar arguments about Empire being good or bad and adopts a fresh approach to Britain's empire and its legacy. Through an exceptional array of first-hand accounts and personal reflections, he portrays the great colonial and imperial cities of Boston, Bridgetown, Dublin, Cape Town, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Bombay, Melbourne, New Delhi, and twentieth-century Liverpool- their architecture, culture, and society balls; the famines, uprisings and repressions which coursed through them; the primitive accumulation and ghostly bureaucracy which ran them; the British supremacists and multicultural trailblazers who inhabited them. From the pioneers of early America to the builders of modern India, from west to east and back again, Hunt follows the processes of exchange and adaptation that collectively moulded the colonial experience and which in their turn transformed the culture, economy and identity of the British Isles. This vivid and richly detailed imperial story, located in ten of the most important cities which the Empire constructed, demolished, reconstructed and transformed, allows us a new understanding of the British Empire's influence upon the world and the world's influence upon it. 'In this ingenious, gripping and unorthodox book Tristram Hunt tells the story of the British Empire in a way we have never had it before. Hunt has a talent for the vivid and the specific which is almost novelistic. We learn about the growth, effects and motivations of Empire not through statistics or the story of British legislators, but by being guided on the ground, taken by the hand through the streets of Liverpool and Melbourne, waterfronts from Hong Kong to Cape Town, and learning the stories of some of the most extraordinary - and often outrageous - people in our history.' Andrew Marr 'This eminently readable book tells the story of the expanding British empire through a history of its key cities across the world, providing fresh insights and fascinating details. It ranges from the Americas to India and back to Britain- an exhilarating ride - and an important contribution to its subject.' C. A. Bayly




The Holy Roman Empire


Book Description

A new interpretation of the Holy Roman Empire that reveals why it was not a failed state as many historians believe The Holy Roman Empire emerged in the Middle Ages as a loosely integrated union of German states and city-states under the supreme rule of an emperor. Around 1500, it took on a more formal structure with the establishment of powerful institutions--such as the Reichstag and Imperial Chamber Court--that would endure more or less intact until the empire's dissolution by Napoleon in 1806. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides a concise history of the Holy Roman Empire, presenting an entirely new interpretation of the empire's political culture and remarkably durable institutions. Rather than comparing the empire to modern states or associations like the European Union, Stollberg-Rilinger shows how it was a political body unlike any other--it had no standing army, no clear boundaries, no general taxation or bureaucracy. She describes a heterogeneous association based on tradition and shared purpose, bound together by personal loyalty and reciprocity, and constantly reenacted by solemn rituals. In a narrative spanning three turbulent centuries, she takes readers from the reform era at the dawn of the sixteenth century to the crisis of the Reformation, from the consolidation of the Peace of Augsburg to the destructive fury of the Thirty Years' War, from the conflict between Austria and Prussia to the empire's downfall in the age of the French Revolution. Authoritative and accessible, The Holy Roman Empire is an incomparable introduction to this momentous period in the history of Europe.




Empire in Asia: A New Global History


Book Description

Asia was the principle focus of empire-builders from Alexander and Akbar to Chinggis Khan and Qianlong and yet, until now, there has been no attempt to provide a comprehensive history of empire in the region. Empire in Asia addresses the need for a thorough survey of the topic. This volume covers the long 19th century, commonly seen in terms of 'high imperialism' and the global projection of Western power. This volume explores the dynamic, volatile and often contested processes by which, by the early years of the 20th century, Asian states, space and peoples became deeply integrated into the wider dynamics of global reordering. Drawing on case studies from across Asia, the contributors discuss key themes including ideology, concepts of identity, religion and politics, state building and state formation, the relationships between space, people, and sovereignty, the movements of goods, money, people and ideas, and the influence and impact of conflict and military power. The two volumes of Empire in Asia offer a significant contribution to the theory and practice of empire when considered globally and comparatively and are essential reading for all students and scholars of global, imperial and Asian history.




Empire and Popular Culture


Book Description

From 1830, if not before, the Empire began to permeate the domestic culture of Empire nations in many ways. From consumables, to the excitement of colonial wars, celebrations relating to events in the history of Empire, and the construction of Empire Day in the early Edwardian period, most citizens were encouraged to think of themselves not only as citizens of a nation but of an Empire. Much of the popular culture of the period presented Empire as a force for ‘civilisation’ but it was often far from the truth and rather, Empire was a repressive mechanism designed ultimately to benefit white settlers and the metropolitan economy. This four volume collection on Empire and Popular Culture contains a wide array of primary sources, complimented by editorial narratives which help the reader to understand the significance of the documents contained therein. It is informed by the recent advocacy of a ‘four-nation’ approach to Empire containing documents which view Empire from the perspective of England, Scotland Ireland and Wales and will also contain material produced for Empire audiences, as well as indigenous perspectives. The sources reveal both the celebratory and the notorious sides of Empire. In this, the third volume of Empire and Popular Culture, documents are presented that shed light on three principal themes: The shaping of personal. collective and national identities of British citizens by the Empire; the commemoration of individuals and collective groups who were noted for their roles in Empire building; and finally, the way in which the Empire entered popular culture by means of trade with the Empire and the goods that were imported.




A Companion to the Roman Empire


Book Description

A Companion to the Roman Empire provides readers with aguide both to Roman imperial history and to the field of Romanstudies, taking account of the most recent discoveries. This Companion brings together thirty original essays guidingreaders through Roman imperial history and the field of Romanstudies Shows that Roman imperial history is a compelling and vibrantsubject Includes significant new contributions to various areas of Romanimperial history Covers the social, intellectual, economic and cultural historyof the Roman Empire Contains an extensive bibliography