Showing papers on "Empire published in 2015"

The Intimacies of Four Continents

Abstract: 1. The Intimacies of Four Continents 1 2. Autobiography Out of Empire 43 3. A Fetishism of Colonial Commodities 73 4. The Ruses of Liberty 101 5. Freedoms Yet to Come 135 Acknowledgments 177 Notes 181 References 269 Index 305

The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece

Abstract: List of Images and Tables xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xxi Abbreviations xxv 1 The Efflorescence of Classical Greece 1 2 Ants around a Pond: An Ecology of City-States 21 3 Political Animals: A Theory of Decentralized Cooperation 45 4 Wealthy Hellas: Measuring Efflorescence 71 5 Explaining Hellas' Wealth: Fair Rules and Competition 101 6 Citizens and Specialization before 550 BCE 123 7 From Tyranny to Democracy, 550-465 BCE 157 8 Golden Age of Empire, 478-404 BCE 191 9 Disorder and Growth, 403-340 BCE 223 10 Political Fall, 359-334 BCE 261 11 Creative Destruction and Immortality 293 Appendix I: Regions of the Greek World: Population, Size, Fame 317 Appendix II: King, City, and Elite Game, Josiah Ober and Barry Weingast 321 Notes 329 Bibliography 367 Index 401

The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire

Abstract: PART I: MAKING THE MANDATES SYSTEM PART II: RETREAT FROM SELF-DETERMINATION, 1923-1930 PART III: NEW TIMES, NEW NORMS, 1927-1933 PART IV: BETWEEN EMPIRE AND INTERNATIONALISM, 1933-1939

Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia

Abstract: The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 BCE) was a vast and complex sociopolitical structure that encompassed much of modern-day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and included two dozen distinct peoples who spoke different languages, worshipped different deities, lived in different environments and had widely differing social customs. This book offers a radical new approach to understanding the Achaemenid Persian Empire and imperialism more generally. Through a wide array of textual, visual and archaeological material, Elspeth R. M. Dusinberre shows how the rulers of the Empire constructed a system flexible enough to provide for the needs of different peoples within the confines of a single imperial authority and highlights the variability in response. This book examines the dynamic tensions between authority and autonomy across the Empire, providing a valuable new way of considering imperial structure and development.

Charlemagne's Practice of Empire

Abstract: Revisiting one of the great puzzles of European political history, Jennifer R. Davis examines how the Frankish king Charlemagne and his men held together the vast new empire he created during the first decades of his reign. Davis explores how Charlemagne overcame the two main problems of ruling an empire, namely how to delegate authority and how to manage diversity. Through a meticulous reconstruction based on primary sources, she demonstrates that rather than imposing a pre-existing model of empire onto conquered regions, Charlemagne and his men learned from them, developing a practice of empire that allowed the emperor to rule on a European scale. As a result, Charlemagne's realm was more flexible and diverse than has long been believed. Telling the story of Charlemagne's rule using sources produced during the reign itself, Davis offers a new interpretation of Charlemagne's political practice, free from the distortions of later legend.

Empire of Cotton: A New History of Global Capitalism

Abstract: This book is the winner of the 2015 Bancroft Prize and the 2015 Philip Taft Prize. It was the finalist for the 2015 Pulizter Prize for History and short-listed for the 2015 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature. For about 900 years, from 1000 to 1900, cotton was the world's most important manufacturing industry. It remains a vast business - if all the cotton bales produced in 2013 had been stacked on top of each other they would have made a somewhat unstable tower 40,000 miles high. Sven Beckert's superb new book is a history of the overwhelming role played by cotton in dictating the shape of our world. For centuries it was central to India's prosperity - a prosperity that was devastated by Britain's imperial takeover of the industry. It formed the core of Britain and Europe's industrial revolution. It revived and modernized slavery in the American South. Essential to billions of people and easily transported, cotton made fortunes, changed geographies and was crucial to modern capitalism and globalization. Empire of Cotton is both a gripping narrative and a brilliant case history of how the world works.

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

Abstract: Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller Shortlisted for a British Book Industry Book of the Year Award 2016 Ancient Rome matters. Its history of empire, conquest, cruelty and excess is something against which we still judge ourselves. Its myths and stories - from Romulus and Remus to the Rape of Lucretia - still strike a chord with us. And its debates about citizenship, security and the rights of the individual still influence our own debates on civil liberty today. SPQR is a new look at Roman history from one of the world's foremost classicists. It explores not only how Rome grew from an insignificant village in central Italy to a power that controlled territory from Spain to Syria, but also how the Romans thought about themselves and their achievements, and why they are still important to us. Covering 1,000 years of history, and casting fresh light on the basics of Roman culture from slavery to running water, as well as exploring democracy, migration, religious controversy, social mobility and exploitation in the larger context of the empire, this is a definitive history of ancient Rome. SPQR is the Romans' own abbreviation for their state: Senatus Populusque Romanus, 'the Senate and People of Rome'.

Muslim Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Empire

Abstract: Muslim Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Empire "recovers the stories of five Indian Muslim scholars who, in the aftermath of the uprising of 1857, were hunted by British authorities, fled their homes in India for such destinations as Cairo, Mecca, and Istanbul, and became active participants in a flourishing pan-Islamic intellectual network at the cusp of the British and Ottoman empires. Seema Alavi traces this network, born in the age of empire, which became the basis of a global Muslim sensibility a form of political and cultural affiliation that competes with ideas of nationhood today as it did in the previous century.By demonstrating that these Muslim networks depended on European empires and that their sensibility was shaped by the West in many subtle ways, Alavi challenges the idea that all pan-Islamic configurations are anti-Western or pro-Caliphate. Indeed, Western imperial hegemony empowered the very inter-Asian Muslim connections that went on to outlive European empires. Diverging from the medieval idea of the umma," this new cosmopolitan community stressed consensus in matters of belief, ritual, and devotion and found inspiration in the liberal reforms then gaining traction in the Ottoman world. Alavi breaks new ground in the writing of nineteenth-century history by engaging equally with the South Asian and Ottoman worlds, and by telling a non-Eurocentric story of global modernity without overlooking the importance of the British Empire."

Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary

Abstract: Writing Self, Writing Empire examines the life, career, and writings of the Mughal state secretary, or munshi, Chandar Bhan Brahman (d. ca. 1670), one of the great Indo-Persian poets and prose stylists of early modern South Asia. Chandar Bhan’s life spanned the reigns of four emperors: Akbar (1556–1605), Jahangir (1605–1627), Shah Jahan (1628–1658), and Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir (1658–1707), the last of the “Great Mughals” whose courts dominated the culture and politics of the subcontinent at the height of the empire’s power, territorial reach, and global influence. Chandar Bhan was a high-caste Hindu who worked for a series of Muslim monarchs and other officials, forming powerful friendships along the way; his experience bears vivid testimony to the pluralistic atmosphere of the Mughal court, particularly during the reign of Shah Jahan, the celebrated builder of the Taj Mahal. But his widely circulated and emulated works also touch on a range of topics central to our understanding of the court’s literary, mystical, administrative, and ethical cultures, while his letters and autobiographical writings provide tantalizing examples of early modern Indo-Persian modes of self-fashioning. Chandar Bhan’s oeuvre is a valuable window onto a crucial, though surprisingly neglected, period of Mughal cultural and political history. “Adds significant depth to our understanding of the intellectual and cultural atmosphere of the Mughal court at its height.” RICHARD M. EATON, author of A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761 “The fullest study so far of the understudied phenomenon of Hindu writers of Persian. Through the prism of Chandar Bhan’s writings, Rajeev Kinra presents a holistic treatment of the cultural concerns of the Mughal empire’s Hindu ‘men of the pen.’” NILE GREEN, author of Making Space: Sufis and Settlers in Early Modern India RAJEEV KINRA is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Northwestern University.

Assuming the purple:the rehabilitation of ancient Rome in Victorian culture, 1837-1901

Abstract: This thesis argues that ancient Rome was rehabilitated in English culture during the mid-Victorian period, following a period of effective displacement that began during the late eighteenth century. Devalued through its appropriation by revolutionary polities on both sides of the Atlantic, Rome’s profile in England was eclipsed by the contemporary popularity of Hellenism as a classical model. Yet, as a result of the coalescence of a diverse set of internal and external factors from around 1850 to 1870, Roman antiquity regained credibility and status as a central parallel for Victorian society and empire for the rest of the century. Although founded upon concepts of reform and progress, as well as defined by its industrial and technological capabilities, mid-to-late-Victorian society became incongruously in thrall to the Roman past for guidance and support at a time of unprecedented commercial development, domestic security and overseas colonial expansion. Presenting a unique episode in the classical framing of the English national experience, this period therefore demands evaluation of the role played by classical Rome in contemporary constructions of domestic and imperial identity. Taking a culture-wide, integrative approach, this thesis explores the chronological trajectory of the reception of Rome during the Victorian era. Surveying the interplay of domestic and external causes behind the Roman revival, it seeks to achieve three fundamental ends: - To trace the re-emergence of Rome as a comparative model at this time. - To identify and analyse the matrix of causes behind Rome’s restoration. - To evaluate the impact of Rome’s revival on Victorian society and empire. Accordingly, the thesis shows how the shifting dynamics of Victorian responses to Rome were intimately bound to contemporary trends and events. The first chapter, ‘Eclipse’, sets Rome’s nineteenth-century reception in a broad historical context, before investigating the recession suffered by its profile as a result of the events of the revolutionary age. The second and third chapters, ‘Rehabilitation I’ and ‘Rehabilitation II’, examine respectively the set of internal and external factors that motivated Rome’s renewal as a cultural model. The final chapter, ‘Impact’, assesses the influence that this resurgence exercised across the spectrum of mid-to-late Victorian culture. Thus, through a diachronic and interdisciplinary approach, the thesis portrays the diverse ways in which Victorians assumed the purple of ancient Rome.

Global History, Imperial History and Connected Histories of Empire

Abstract: The turn towards Global history shows no sign of abating. It seems that across the discipline, historians are becoming increasingly interested in understanding the past on a planetary scale. Prominent Imperial historians, in particular, have been among the most fervent advocates of Global history. So close are the concerns of some Imperial history—particularly British Imperial history—to those of Global history, that it is getting harder to disentangle the two. Despite this we argue that, whilst both fields are overlapping and heterogeneous, historians should reflect more explicitly on the methodological differences that exist between them. In the process we point out some lessons that Global historians might learn from Imperial historians, and viceversa. We argue for “connected histories of empire” that seek to uncover links that operated across the formal borders of imperial formations and that deploy novel spatial frameworks. Such an approach would draw on the diverse methodologies developed by Imperial and Global historians who seek to write both “comparative” and “connected” histories. We point the way towards histories that are more than imperial, but less than global.

The Agrarian Seeds of Empire: The Political Economy of Agriculture in the U.S. State Institutional Capacity Building, 1849-1980

Abstract: ...............................................................................................ii Acknowledgements..............................................................................................iii Table of

The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire

Abstract: The book under review here is about the League of Nations' mandates system. Following the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the victorious allies came to govern the former colonial territories of the...

Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke

Abstract: Edmund Burke (1730-97) lived during one of the most extraordinary periods of world history. He grappled with the significance of the British Empire in India, fought for reconciliation with the American colonies, and was a vocal critic of national policy during three European wars. He also advocated reform in Britain, pressed for constitutional change in Ireland, and became a central protagonist in the great debate on the French Revolution. Drawing on the complete range of printed and manuscript sources, Empire and Revolution offers a vivid reconstruction of the major concerns of this outstanding statesman, orator, and philosopher. In restoring Burke to his original political and intellectual context, this book strips away the accumulated distortions that have marked the reception of his ideas. In the process, it overturns the conventional picture of a partisan of tradition against progress. In place of the image of a backward-looking opponent of popular rights, it presents a multifaceted portrait of one of the most captivating figures in eighteenth-century life and thought. While Burke was a passionately energetic statesman, he was also a deeply original thinker. Empire and Revolution depicts him as a philosopher-in-action who evaluated the political realities of the day through the lens of Enlightenment thought, variously drawing on the ideas of such figures as Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Hume. A boldly ambitious work of scholarship, this book challenges us to rethink the legacy of Burke and the turbulent era in which he played so pivotal a role.

De-Constructing the Chinese Nation

Abstract: Most Sinologists view the Chinese nation as a relatively recent development, one that made the transition from empire to nation only around the turn of the twentieth century. This contrasts with the view of the Chinese nationalists and the ordinary people of China that their country is an ancient body that has evolved into present times. This split in the understanding of the Chinese nation cannot be easily resolved by Western theories of nationalism, whose assumptions are deeply embedded in modernization theory. In this paper, I propose a few alternative categories, inspired in part by post-modernist theories and in part by a comparative perspective, to understand both the question of the history of the nation as well as the related one about the nature of national identity. In the problematique of modernization theories the nation is a unique and unprecedented form of community which finds its place in the oppositions between empire and nation, tradition and modernity, and centre and periphery. As the new and sovereign subject of history, the nation embodies a moral force that allows it to supersede dynasties and ruling segments, which are seen as merely partial subjects representing only themselves through history. By contrast, the nation is a collective subject whose ideal periphery exists outside itself poised to realize its historical destiny in a modern future. ' To be sure, modernization theory has clarified many aspects of nationalism. But in its effort to see the nation as a collective subject of modernity, it obscures the nature of national identity. I propose instead that we view national identity as founded upon fluid relationships; it thus both resembles and is interchangeable with other political identities. If the dynamics of national identity lie within the same terrain as other political identities, we will need to break with two assumptions of modernization

The Archaeology of Early China: From Prehistory to the Han Dynasty

Abstract: This volume aims to satisfy a pressing need for an updated account of Chinese archaeology. It covers an extended time period from the earliest peopling of China to the unification of the Chinese Empire some two thousand years ago. The geographical coverage includes the traditional focus on the Yellow River basin but also covers China's many other regions. Among the topics covered are the emergence of agricultural communities; the establishment of a sedentary way of life; the development of sociopolitical complexity; advances in lithic technology, ceramics, and metallurgy; and the appearance of writing, large-scale public works, cities, and states. Particular emphasis is placed on the great cultural variations that existed among the different regions and the development of interregional contacts among those societies.

Revisiting Prussia's Wars against Napoleon: History, Culture, and Memory

Abstract: Prelude: war, culture and memory Introduction: revisiting the wars against Napoleon Part I. A History of Defeat, Crisis and Victory: 1. The defeat of 1806 and its aftermath 2. Reform and revenge: political responses 3. Liberation and restoration: the wars of 1813-15 and their legacy Conclusion Part II. Discourses on the Nation, War and Gender: 4. Mobilizing public opinion: propaganda, media and war 5. Defining the nation: belonging and exclusion 6. Debating war: the military, warfare and masculinity 7. Regulating participation: patriotism, citizenship and gender Conclusion Part III. Collective Practices of De/mobilization and Commemoration: 8. Military service: mobilizing militiamen and volunteers 9. War charity: patriotic women's associations 10. De/mobilizing society: patriotic-national celebrations and rituals 11. Honoring and commemorating war heroes: the cult of death for the fatherland Conclusion Part IV. Literary Market, History and War Memories: 12. Politics, market and media: the development of a culture-consuming national public 13. Inventing history: nostalgia, historiography and memory 14. Remembering the past: the Napoleonic wars in autobiographies and war memoirs Conclusion Part V. Novels, Memory and Politics: 15. Re-creating the past: the time of the anti-Napoleonic wars in novels 16. Hopefulness and disappointment: novels of the Restoration era and the Vormarz 17. Critique, desire and glory: novels of the Nachmarz and the German Empire Conclusion Epilogue: Historicizing war and memory, 2013-1813-1913.

Beyond the 'imperial mystique' : empire and national identity in the Portuguese Estado Novo (c. 1930-1951)

Abstract: Whilst being a period of consolidation for the Portuguese right-wing dictatorship known as Estado Novo, the 1930s and 1940s were marked by geopolitical change and major redefinition of mental maps about colonial order. This dissertation explores the intertwined dynamics between imperial and national identity discourses in Portugal during these turbulent decades, departing from the idea that they were mutually constitutive in metropolitan culture and were negotiated on an everyday basis to adjust to different challenges. In order to contest the idea that the Portuguese 1930s and 1940s were marked by a monolithic imperial-based nationalism stemming from the state apparatuses, this study moves beyond the investigation of major nationalist events and colonial propaganda. Instead, it explores the interplay between Nation and Empire through the lens of the contemporary debates about the Empire and Portuguese colonial status in the world that stood out in the public discussion during this period. Therefore, it looks at representations of Portugueseness and Portuguese colonialism’s exceptionalism in five main themes: 1) the question of native forced labour in the Portuguese empire around the 1930 Forced labour convention, 2) European colonial claims for a new partition of Africa on the eve of the Second World War, 3) Portugal and its empire as a united nation, 4) colonial migration and settlement and 5) the specificity of the Portuguese national character and its impact on the national methods

Rethinking the Chinese World Order: the imperial cycle and the rise of China

Abstract: Looking to China's imperial history to understand how China as a great power will behave in the twenty-first century, some scholars have rediscovered the concept of the traditional Chinese world order coined by John K. Fairbank in the 1960s in the reconstruction of the benevolent governance and benign hierarchy of the Chinese Empire, and portrayed its collapse as a result of the clash of civilizations between the benevolent Chinese world order and the brutal European nation-state system. China was forced into the jungle of the social Darwinist world to struggle for its survival. As a result, China's search for power and wealth is to restore justice in an unjust world. China's rise would be peaceful. This article finds that while imperial China was not uniquely benevolent nor uniquely violent, the reconstruction of China's imperial past to advance the contemporary agenda of its peaceful rise has, ironically, set a nineteenth century agenda for China in the twenty-first century to restore the regional hiera...

"They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide

Abstract: Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Sources, Notes, and Transliteration xxiii 1 Empire 1 2 Armenians 31 3 Nation 64 4 Great Powers 91 5 Revolution 141 6 Counterrevolution 174 7 War 208 8 Removal 246 9 Genocide 281 10 Orphaned Nation 328 Conclusion: Thinking about the Unthinkable: Genocide 350 Historians Look at the Armenian Genocide: A Bibliographical Discussion 367 Notes 375 Index 463