Empires
Discover the best books on empires, from Hardt's philosophical Empire to Hopkirk's classic history The Great Game. Explore power, conquest, and global influence in this curated reading list.
Book
Empire
by Michael Hardt
Empire, as Hardt and Negri demonstrate, is the new political order of globalization. Their book shows how this emerging structure is fundamentally different from the imperialism of European dominance and capitalist expansion in previous eras. Rather, today’s Empire draws on the hybrid identities and expanding frontiers of U.S. constitutionalism.
Book
The Great Game
by Peter Hopkirk
THE GREATGAME: THE EPIC STORY BEHIND TODAY’S HEADLINES Peter Hopkirk’s spellbinding account of the great imperial struggle for supremacy in Central Asoa has been hailed as essential reading with that era’s legacy playing itself out today. The Great Game between Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia was fought across desolate terrain from the Caucasus to China, over the lonely passes of the Parmirs and Karakorams, in the blazing Kerman and Helmund deserts, and through the caravan towns of the old Silk Road—both powers scrambling to control access to the riches of India and the East. When play first began, the frontiers of Russia and British India lay 2000 miles apart; by the end, this distance had shrunk to twenty miles at some points. Now, in the vacuum left by the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there is once again talk of Russian soldiers "dipping their toes in the Indian Ocean." The Washington Post has said that "every story Peter Hopkirk touches is totally engrossing." In this gripping narrative he recounts a breathtaking tale of espionage and treachery through the actual experiences of its colorful characters. Based on meticulous scholarship and on-the-spot research, this is the history at the core of today’s geopolitics.
