"Wide ranging, richly detailed, lucidly written, this compelling history of empires stresses the subject peoples on whose back these polities were built and whose resistance often caused their collapse. With his shrewdly selected mix of case studies, Parsons provides us with an important and timely rejoinder against those who romanticize imperial rule."
Dane Kennedy, George Washington University "How refreshing to ... Read moreread a history of imperialism aimed at a broad audience that refuses to blur or soften the brutal effects and origins of empire.... Parsons offers a refreshing, engaging and cogently argued counterweight to the more usual neo-conservative reckoning of empire's alleged benefits."
Philippa Levine, H-Net "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."
Publishers Weekly "Parsons, an Africanist by training, samples instructive imperial experiences: Roman Britain, Muslim Spain, Spanish Peru, the East India Company in Italy, Napoleonic Italy, British Kenya, and Vichy France."
Charles S. Maie, Foreign Affairs "Parsons 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 subsequently fall.... Students of empire, historical or otherwise, would be well advised to read this book.... Highly recommended."
Choice "Parsons deserves to be commended for tackling such a key question in imperial studies. He offers a thought-provoking interpretation of the dynamics of empire from ancient to modern manifestations. His questions touching the evolution of empires merit serious consideration by historians."
Jodie Mader, Thomas More College "Parsons aims, laudably, to correct the imbalances... apologists of empire have introduced in readers' minds."
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Times Literary Supplement "Vigorously written and intellectually engaging...there should be little dissent from the relevancy of its anti-imperialist imperative in the twenty-first century."
David Levering Lewis, The Journal of Modern History Show Less