An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List

25. Empires

February 22, 2021

Description

Is the age of empires over? And are they always a bad thing? Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland explore empires through history, examining the modern assumption that nation statehood is always the...
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Books Referenced

After Tamerlane

Author: John Darwin

Context:

Dominic references this book when discussing how empires have been the natural unit of human organization throughout history, citing Darwin as 'a historian at Oxford' who makes this point in his book, described as 'a great history of empires'

Beyond a Boundary

Author: C.L.R. James

Context:

Tom mentions reading this book about cricket when discussing how anti-imperialism was paradoxically exported by the British. He notes that James wrote as 'a Marxist who's very, very anti-imperial' yet the book is 'incredibly British' and 'saturated in English literature'