The Burdens of Empire: 1539 to the Present - Hardcover

Pagden, Anthony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521198275 ISBN 13: 9780521198271

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Throughout human history, empires have been far more constant and widespread, and the source of far more anguished political speculation, than nation states have ever been. But despite the long history of debate and the recent resurgence of interest in empires and imperialism, no one seems very clear as to what exactly an empire is. The Burdens of Empire strives to offer not only a definition but also a working description. This book examines how empires were conceived by those who ruled them and lived under them; it looks at the relations, real or imagined, between the imperial metropolis (when one existed) and its outlying provinces or colonies; and it asks how the laws that governed the various parts and various ethnic groups, of which all empires were made, were conceived and interpreted. Anthony Pagden argues that the evolution of the modern concept of the relationship between states, and in particular the modern conception of international law, cannot be understood apart from the long history of European empire building.

About this title

Book Description:

The entire course of modern Western history has been shaped by the rise and fall of the great European empires. The Burdens of Empire examines different aspects of this long history, focusing on how political theorists, jurists, historians and others sought to explain what an empire is and to justify its very existence.

About the Author:

Anthony Pagden is Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Political Science and History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has been a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; Senior Research Fellow of the Warburg Institute, London; Professor of History at the European University Institute, Florence; University Reader in Intellectual History and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; and the Harry C. Black Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of more than a dozen books, many of which have been translated into a number of European and Asian languages. His most recent publications include Worlds and War: The 2,500-Year Struggle between East and West (2008) and The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters (2013). He has also written for the New Republic, the National Interest, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, El País (Spain), Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy), the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0521198275
• ISBN 13: 9780521198271
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 302