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The rule of empires : those who built them, those who endured them, and why they always fall / Timothy H. Parsons.

by Parsons, Timothy, 1962-

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Oxford University Press, 2010.

Colonies -- History.

Colonization -- History.

Imperialism -- History.

9780195304312 (hc : acid-free paper)

0195304314 (hc : acid-free paper)

x, 480 p. : maps ; 25 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 451-471) and index.

1. Roman Britain: The Myth of the Civilizing Empire, -- 2. Muslim Spain: Blurring Subjecthood in Imperial Al-Andalus, -- 3. Spanish Peru: Empire by Franchise, -- 4. Company India: Private Empire Building, -- 5. Napoleonic Italy: Empire Aborted, -- 6. British Kenya: The Short Life of the New Imperialism, -- 7. France under the Nazis: Imperial Endpoint,.

""Parsons draws together an enormous amount of scholarship into 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" ""Wide ranging, richly detailed, and lucidly written, this compelling history of empires stresses the subject peoples on whose backs 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" "In The Past Two Decades there has been heated debate about the nature of empires. Apologists argue that they are comparatively benevolent and civilizing forms of rule. Detractors counter that imperial methods are not only unsustainable but also inherently inhumane. On whose side falls the weight of history?" "Stretching from ancient Rome and the Umayyad Caliphate, to Britain's "new" imperialism in Kenya and the Third Reich, The Rule of Empires illuminates the features common to all empires. Timothy H. Parsons argues that far from confirming some sort Darwinian Hierarchy of advanced and primitive societies, conquests were driven by temporary advantages in military technology, wealth, and political will. Beneath the self-justifying rhetoric of compassionate paternalism and cultural superiority lay oppression and Exploitation. Yet imperial ambitions still appear viable in the twenty-first centure. Parsons shows, because their defenders and detractors alike employ abstract and romanticized perspectives that elide the brutal reality of subjugation." "Writing from the point of view of the subject rather than of the conqueror, Parsons offers a fascinating and sweeping corrective, revealing the inevitable decline of imperial rule across centuries and continents. In providing an accurate picture of what it is like to live as a subject, The Rule of Empires lays bare the rationalizations of imperialists and their apologists and exposes the true goals, and limits, of hard power."--BOOK JACKET.

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