Empire : The Russian Empire and Its Rivals

by Dominic Lieven

• ISBN13: 9780300088595
• ISBN10: 0300088590
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2001-02-08
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

How does one empire differ from another? Why do empires rise and fall? What has made empires flourish in some eras and regions of the world but not in others? In this broad and ambitious book, Dominic Lieven explores the place and meaning of empire from ancient Rome to the present.

The central focus of the book is Russia, and the rise and fall of the Tsarist and the Soviet Empires. The overwhelming majority of works on empire concentrate on the European maritime powers. Lieven's comparative approach highlights the important role played by Russia in the expansion of Europe and its rise to global dominance. The book contrasts the nature, strategies, and fate of empire in Russia with that of its major rivals, the Habsburg, Ottoman, and British empires, and considers a broad range of other cases from ancient China and Rome to the present-day United States, Indonesia, India, and the European Union.

Many of the dilemmas of empire persist in today's world, and Lieven throws new light on some of the most intractable current examples, including the crisis in the for

Author Biography

Dominic Lieven, a former Kennedy scholar at Harvard University, is professor of Russian government at the London School of Economics

Table of Contents

Maps	vi
Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	xxi
PART ONE: EMPIRE
Empire: A Word and its Meanings	3	(24)
Power and Empire in the Global Context	27	(62)
PART TWO: EMPIRES
The British Empire	89	(39)
The Ottoman Empire	128	(30)
The Habsburg Empire	158	(43)
PART THREE: RUSSIA
The Russian Empire: Regions, Peoples, Geopolitics	201	(30)
The Tsarist State and the Russian People	231	(31)
Tsarist Empire: Power, Strategy, Decline	262	(26)
The Soviet Union	288	(55)
PART FOUR: AFTER EMPIRE
After Empire	343	(70)
Conclusion	413	(10)
Notes	423	(22)
Bibliography	445	(32)
Index	477