The rule of empires : those who built them, those who endured them, and why they always fall /

Parsons (African history, Washington Univ.) sets an ambitious agenda for his case study on empires and largely succeeds. Explicitly setting out to counter the neoimperialist historiography of the last decade, Parsons uses a series of historic imperial episodes to illustrate the limits of empire and explain why empires emerge and subsequently fall. Ranging widely from Roman Britain to conquistador Peru to Napoleonic Italy to Nazi-occupied France, the author lays out a convincing case for the absolutism of his subtitle. Parsons deploys strong language in making his case--for example, "when stripped to its essence, empire is nothing more than the political embodiment of unchecked avarice." He places more emphasis on the empires' subjects and their important role in the temporal course of empire. Empires emerge from temporary military or political imbalances; rely for their longevity on collaborationist elites; and fail because the extractive economics of empire have limits. Parsons argues forcefully that empire was an aberration in human history, with empires becoming more rare and brief into the modern period. Students of empire, historical or otherwise, would be well advised to read this book. Summing Up; Highly recommended. Undergraduates and above. J. Rogers Louisiana State University at Alexandria

Unhappy empires are, in crucial respects, all the same-and happy ones don't exist, according to this incisive study. Historian Parson (The British Imperial Century, 1815-1914) surveys imperial regimes from Rome's rule in ancient Britain to Spain's in Peru, Britain's in India and Kenya, and Nazi Germany's occupation of France. He identifies a single mercenary purpose behind these diverse examples: to loot the wealth and exploit the labor of conquered peoples. At the same time, he argues, stable rule requires the cooperation and assimilation of imperial subjects, which sets up a fatal contradiction-as an empire co-opts its subjects, it becomes harder to profitably exploit them, and the financial underpinnings of empire crumble. Challenging neo-imperialists like Niall Ferguson, the author insists that there is no such thing as benign empire; he fingers Britain's allegedly "liberal" empire as one of the most dysfunctional, because of its racist refusal to assimilate its populace. Parsons draws together an enormous amount of scholarship into a lucid, cold-eyed analysis of the mechanics of imperial control. The result is a compelling critique of empires past and of their latter-day nostalgists. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved