Empire is a dirty word, more often than not associated with Europe's expansion overseas. But many of the world's most powerful empires were in Asia, and they too battled for more territory. In this engagingly written and carefully crafted volume, some of the best scholars in the field bring much needed clarity to the many ways in which empire became ... Read moretruly global in the nineteenth century, with repercussions that can be felt to his day.
Frank Dikoetter, Chair Professor of Humanities, University of Hong Kong, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and author of Mao's Great Famine (2011) - of Volume II
Fairey, Brunero, and Farrell have assembled a remarkably far-reaching book, whose many contributions to the debate on empires in Asian and world history are at once provocative and innovative. Weaving together the histories of Asian empires and European empires in Asia from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century, this work poses new questions and challenges established concepts, chronologies, and narratives of both modernity and empire. The Asian perspective offers another vista to a history of globalization in which empires, both East and West, were prime agents, and in that lies the most valuable contribution of this extensive and stimulating collection of studies.
Nicola Di Cosmo, LUCE Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies, Institute of Advanced Study, University of London, UK
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