ePub Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics after the Religious Right by E. J. Dionne in History

Description

Empires--vast states of territories and peoples united by force and ambition--have dominated the political landscape for more than two millennia. Empires in World History departs from conventional European and nation-centered perspectives to take a remarkable look at how empires relied on diversity to shape the global order. Beginning with ancient Rome and China and continuing across Asia; Europe; the Americas; and Africa; Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper examine empires' conquests; rivalries; and strategies of domination--with an emphasis on how empires accommodated; created; and manipulated differences among populations. Burbank and Cooper examine Rome and China from the third century BCE; empires that sustained state power for centuries. They delve into the militant monotheism of Byzantium; the Islamic Caliphates; and the short-lived Carolingians; as well as the pragmatically tolerant rule of the Mongols and Ottomans; who combined religious protection with the politics of loyalty. Burbank and Cooper discuss the influence of empire on capitalism and popular sovereignty; the limitations and instability of Europe's colonial projects; Russia's repertoire of exploitation and differentiation; as well as the "empire of liberty"--devised by American revolutionaries and later extended across a continent and beyond. With its investigation into the relationship between diversity and imperial states; Empires in World History offers a fresh approach to understanding the impact of empires on the past and present.