The Empire Books

Fans of historical novels ought not to miss this one. "Imperial Purple" is set in the early Christian era during the reign of Theodosius II (408-450)and with the author's "The Bearkeeper's Daughter" and "The Beacon at Alexandria" the novel examines why "Byzantine" has entered our language as an adjective. Well written and reasearched.(alternate selection of the History Book Club)

The full book title is "Imperial Rome: The Social Life of The Roman Empire" by Martin P. Nilsson.

This is a truly remarkable book. Not only does it celebrate the art of Improvisation, it shows you how to explore it and teach it, a much more challenging proposition.

In a typically Australian nuts and bolts sort of fashion, Pierse breaks down the craft of improvisation into seven fundamental challenges: making an offer, finding the focus, advancing and extending the narrative, endowment, status, making a transition, and developing a character. For each challenge she explores the foundation skills required, how to use them to make scenes, before exploring them in performance games. It's a basic approach Lyn Pierse has used to teach improvisation to everyone from kids to award winning actors. It's not just a must-have resource book, it's a curriculum in itself.

As well as being "chock-a-block" full of tips, techniques, games and the wisdom of experience, it's also littered with magical photos celebrating the countless stars of stage, screen and the occasional circus that have fallen under the influence of this remarkable teacher and her uniquely pragmatic approach to improvisation.

Join this Aussie legend for a journey into a craft you never stop learning, as I have.

[Disclosure: I first improvised with Lyn in 1987, shared the stage with her in countless improvised performances, and worked on a few early drafts of this marvellous book - which by the way has sold out two editions in Australia]

From The Daily Telegraph London January 01, 2005
Why we need empires
Andrew Roberts

Deepak Lal is the nephew of a former mayor of Delhi and Nehru cabinet minister who was imprisoned by the British. Lal is himself a former Indian foreign-service diplomat, Oxford economics don, research administrator for the World Bank, the author of 19 books, and professor of international development at UCLA. He began life believing in the socialist and nationalist ideologies of post-independence India, and so is the ideal person to write a book with the title In Praise of Empires.

"It is evidence and experience," Lal says, "especially in working and travelling in most parts of the Third World during my professional career, which have led me to change my earlier views." In only 216 pages of tautly written, sharply worded and frankly exhilarating text, Lal sets out the case for imperialism in the modern world, and why the United States could bring untold benefits to the planet if only it could shrug off the notion, held ever since the Revolutionary War-era, that empires are bad things per se.

"The order provided by empires," Lal argues, "has been essential for the working of the benign processes of globalisation, which promote prosperity." This splendidly revisionist statement is supported by a wealth of evidence and acutely chosen statistical tables, backed up by an impressive range of sources from fellow intellectuals. Drawing on the ideas of Raymond Aron, Hedley Bull, Niall Ferguson, Michael Oakeshott and many others, Lal none the less constructs his own analysis of where the English-speaking peoples have been, where we're headed and what might happen if we choose not to go there.

As one would expect from such a distinguished scholar, Lal defines his terms carefully, thus: "Globalization is the process of creating a common economic space which leads to a growing integration of the world economy through increasingly free movement of goods, capital and labour," something that he believes is almost always "a positive sum game". Modern America can choose to go down the route of free trade and laissez-faire, thereby enriching the world as well as itself, or it can stick with the New Deal-era populist anti-trust legislation and trade-reciprocity that Lal believes impoverishes both the world and the United States itself.

"Not since the fall of the Roman Empire has there been a potential imperial power like the US today," Lal states, and the role that has been thrust upon her by History, one that she must not now shirk, is to create what he calls a "LIEO", a Liberal International Economic Order. The main attributes of the LIEO imposed by the British in the 19th century were free trade, free mobility of capital, sound money due to the gold standard, property rights guaranteed by law, piracy-free transportation thanks to the Royal Navy, political stability, low domestic taxation and spending, and "gentlemanly" capitalism run from the City of London. "Despite Marxist and nationalist cant," Lal writes, the British empire delivered astonishing growth rates, at least in those places fortunate enough to be coloured pink on the globe.

The great villain of this book is President Woodrow Wilson, whose "utopian world view was a strange mixture of classical liberalism, Burkean conservatism, Presbyterianism, and socialism". It was a combination that propelled Wilson towards giving self-determination to ethnic groupings that had not enjoyed it for centuries, with ultimately disastrous results. Lal also blames Wilson's vandalism of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires in 1919 for creating the circumstances that allowed the rise of Hitler.

To invert Dean Acheson's famous quip about post-Suez Britain, America has found an empire but has yet to find a role. Republicans and Democrats both shun the term "empire" as profoundly un-American, despite the fact that it represents a potentially far higher historic calling than the merely nation-based ideals of 1776. Lal rejects the neo-conservative project of extending democracy throughout the globe, arguing that experience shows that in places like Iran and Algeria it will be used to promote Islamic nihilism and obscurantism. For him modernity - by which he means economic globalisation and enforced order - is the touchstone, and the perfect way for America both to defeat al-Qaeda and to earn the enduring salute of History. Imperialism is an idea whose time has come again.

In this sequel to Out of This World, Pellinore Brown returns from the universe of the Galactic Empire to the world of Faerie, which is his only possible way back to Earth. But, when his group comes under attack by the forces of Shadow, Pel quickly realizes that the only way he will get home is over the Shadow's dead body. And so, with his mixed bag of wizards and swordsmen, spacemen and mutants, and homesick earthlings, he is off to Shadow's stronghold. But, what he finds there will surprise him...and some surprises are nasty indeed!

I must start out by saying that I am a big fan of Lawrence Watt-Evans, and am enthralled by his Three Worlds series. I have enjoyed the way that the author constructed his three universes, and then wove them together. Like the first book, this one lulls you into thinking it's a fun little children's story, but before you know it the author turns up the heat and the story becomes quite serious indeed. If you are put off by stories that include death and dismemberment, then you will dislike this book.

But, as for me, I loved this book! I absolutely love the setting, I found the story to be engaging, and the characters enjoyable. I can't wait to get the next book in the series, and see how it all turns out. This is a great book, by a great author, and I recommend them both to you!

This book delivered a wonderfully succinct and architectural introduction about the origins of England's conquest of India, that insightfully sets the stage for any reader. Then it delves into engaging and evolutionary narratives on the key characters - Mountbatton, Nehru, Jinnah, Gandhi and others. Starting from their roots in youth, Alex Von Tunzelmann, doesn't just give mere historical account but offers the richness of their developing minds and beliefs, without tapering their flaws, to bring the reader to a better understanding how these men and women each played their roles in the liberation of India. I've only read some Gandhi-centric books about this period beforehand. I feel I have a more balanced and diversified grasp now from which I could choose to focus on multiple aspects as my interest leads me. An amazing time, on both eastern and western fronts - this book binds it all together very well and the writing style is such a joy to read. Great job Alex, I'm now a fan and I look forward to your next one!
I highly recommend this book.

Dr. Shannon has exploded a series of myths in this landmark study. His research is impeccable, his analysis bulletproof, and his writing elegant. Anyone interested in the collapse of the British Empire in North America should read this book and, I daresay, commit major parts of it to memory.

You may have seen Dr. Shannon on The History Channel commenting on the authenticity of popular movies like Dances with Wolves and The Patriot. This man is serious, smart, and incisive. Read this book and hope he is working on more.

Eric Hobsbawm's analysis of the Industrial Revolution is magisterial. The IR was not only an acceleration of growth, but an acceleration of growth through economic and social transformation.
It was also solidly founded on political and military pillars.
Politically, the kings were subordinated to Parliament, which was controlled by an oligarchy of landowning capitalist aristocrats. The British government based nearly all its policies on economic ends. At home, it provided support for technical innovation and the development of the capital goods industry. It crushed also foreign competition. Its foreign policies were based on war and colonization, which permitted to capture other countries' export markets.
Militarilly, it used the strenght of its Navy as a trade-minded weapon.

The first phase of the IR (1780-1840) was based on cotton; the second one on coal, iron and steel.
It constituted for nearly the whole British population a fundamental change, from the countryside to the city, and from a life of bare and uncertain subsistence to relative affluence.

The decline began already before WWI, when Britain became a parasitic economy, living off the remains of world monopoly.

The last part of the book is rather more an enumeration of pure statistics.

The author states also that Britain was 'never defeated in war, still less destroyed.'
In his magnificent biography of J.M. Keynes (part II), Prof. Skidelsky shows clearly that the debt contracted during WWII left Britain bankrupt after the war. His analysis of the negotiations about the Bretton-Woods system and the conversion of the British debt exposes mightily that the ultimate goal of the US Administration was the destruction of the British Empire and its Commonwealth ties. The US operation was a sound success.
The US assured its place as new world leader, until now.

A highly recommended book.

The figure of Napoleon-his life and military conquests and defeats-has cast such a gigantic shadow over his age that little has been written, especially in English, on the his regime from the point of view of the cities and departments of his Empire. Gavin Daly has filled this gap with a new volume, based on his dissertation, on the impact of the fifteen years of Napoleon's rule on Rouen and the Seine-Inférieure.

The department of Seine-Inférieure was one of the most populous and diverse departments of France and Rouen, strategically and economically important, was the fifth largest city in France, with a population of around 85,000 in 1800. Rouen was a commercial and industrial city, an important textile-manufacturing center, with a large working population. But Rouen's cotton industry had been in decline since the 1786 Eden treaty had opened French markets to a flood of English goods. Linked with Le Harve on the coast, Rouen, though well inland on the Seine, was still an important port. In Rouen the Revolution had been controlled largely by the wealthy merchants and manufacturers who welcomed it, but who strove for a moderate, liberal revolution that respected order and property. Rouen had avoided both federalism and Chouannerie. Seine-Inférieure contrasted starkly with much of the rest of Normandy by its moderation and lack of royalist resistance.

Historians have emphasized the continuities of Napoleonic institutions with those of the ancien regime, and a few recent historians have stressed the modern nature of Napoleon's regime. In the past, historians have relied mainly on the view from Paris. But we need regional histories to serve as a laboratory to test whether the Consulate and Empire were looking to the past or to the future, whether Napoleonic France was traditional or innovative. Gavin Daly's in-depth look at Rouen attempts to show that comparisons with the past are largely superficial, that the "Napoleonic prefects consolidated the reforms of the Revolution by adopting a professional, rational and enlightened approach to administering and controlling society." Daly also investigates and negates the commonly held view that the Napoleonic administration of the prefects declined as the Empire progressed. Daly leans toward Stuart Woolf's assessment that the late-Imperial prefects were better trained, more advanced and more effective. Daly also contends that a prefect was not an "Emperor in miniature"-in Jacques Godechot's phrase-and was receptive to and influenced by local needs, or, at least, those of the local elites. There was a give and take between departmental administrations and the central government, that the regime had a large stake in trying to please the notables and that the previously overlooked governing councils of the departments did have a say in the regional government.

"Inside Napoleonic France" is arranged by themes: a description of Rouen at the beginning of the Consulate, the administration of government, justice and policing, religion and the Concordat, the elites, commerce and trade, conscription, etc. Key to Daly's study is the prefects who were the administration's men-on-the-scene throughout France. The duties of a Napoleonic prefect were wide-ranging, "encompassing the social, political, economic, religious and cultural life" of a department. Though the prefect had a great deal of local autonomy, the expectation was that they were appointed to carry out the directives of the national government. Prefects were not "little Emperors," they had to respond to the needs and gain the support of local notables. Uniform laws were enacted in Paris, but were modified to meet local conditions. "Far from being a dictator, [the prefect] served more as a mediator between the state and the local needs and although laws emanated from Paris, there was a substantial amount of adaptation before they were applied to local life."

It is refreshing read a book on Napoleonic France that presents a mass unfamiliar information and fresh insights. Readers who see the era solely in military terms will not be the audience for this book. But those who wish to understand the inner workings of the regime will find much of value in Gavin Daly's study. Daly sets out to test the assumptions about Napoleon's France against his detailed study of Seine-Inférieure. In some cases the assumptions are basically true, in others a more nuanced understanding may be necessary and in still others these assumptions appear to be fundamentally flawed.

"Inside Napoleonic France" is written in clear, largely jargon-free academic prose. The book includes an analytical index and fourteen charts and tables. Daly's bibliography is extensive and thorough, employing both primary and secondary sources. The book is expensive, as academic books tend to be, but well worth its publication cost for its unique look at Napoleon's France.

Dr. Mote's monograph outlines the foundations of Chinese thought from Confucius (551-479 BC) through the bureaucratic innovations of the first dynasty (the Ch'in, 221-206 BC). The book covers early Chinese cosmology, Confucianism and its derivative schools, Taoism, Mohism, and the pragmatic successes of history's first totalitarian government -- the Ch'in State. It does not attempt to cover later influences such as Buddhism.

The actual text is short (114 pages) so Dr. Mote must use a concise (and occasionally dense) style to cover all this ground. When the reader finishes this book he is rewarded with an introductory understanding of each of these philosophies, how they developed, and how they influenced each other. An excellent jumping-off point for further studies. (Uses Wade-Giles and earlier romanizations).