Visions of empire : how five imperial regimes shaped the world / Krishan Kumar.
Kumar, Krishan, 1942- author.
2017
D32 .K86 2017eb
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Title Visions of empire : how five imperial regimes shaped the world / Krishan Kumar.
Author Kumar, Krishan, 1942- author.
ISBN 9781400884919 (electronic book)
1400884918 (electronic book)
9780691153636
DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400884919
Published Princeton [New Jersey] : Princeton University Press, 2017.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xviii, 576 pages) : illustrations, maps
Other Standard Identifiers 10.1515/9781400884919 doi
Call Number D32 .K86 2017eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 904
Summary The empires of the past were far-flung experiments in multinationalism and multiculturalism, and have much to teach us about navigating our own increasingly globalized and interconnected world. Until now, most recent scholarship on empires has focused on their subject peoples. Visions of Empire looks at their rulers, shedding critical new light on who they were, how they justified their empires, how they viewed themselves, and the styles of rule they adopted toward their subjects. Krishan Kumar provides panoramic and multifaceted portraits of five major European empires - Ottoman, Habsburg, Russian/Soviet, British, and French - showing how each, like ancient Rome, saw itself as the carrier of universal civilization to the rest of the world. Sometimes these aims were couched in religious terms, as with Islam for the Ottomans or Catholicism for the Habsburgs. Later, the imperial missions took more secular forms, as with British political traditions or the world communism of the Soviets. Visions of Empire offers new insights into the interactions between rulers and ruled, revealing how empire was as much a shared enterprise as a clash of oppositional interests. It explores how these empires differed from nation-states, particularly in how the ruling peoples of empires were forced to downplay or suppress their own national or ethnic identities in the interests of the long-term preservation of their rule.
Note The empires of the past were far-flung experiments in multinationalism and multiculturalism, and have much to teach us about navigating our own increasingly globalized and interconnected world. Until now, most recent scholarship on empires has focused on their subject peoples. Visions of Empire looks at their rulers, shedding critical new light on who they were, how they justified their empires, how they viewed themselves, and the styles of rule they adopted toward their subjects. Krishan Kumar provides panoramic and multifaceted portraits of five major European empires - Ottoman, Habsburg, Russian/Soviet, British, and French - showing how each, like ancient Rome, saw itself as the carrier of universal civilization to the rest of the world. Sometimes these aims were couched in religious terms, as with Islam for the Ottomans or Catholicism for the Habsburgs. Later, the imperial missions took more secular forms, as with British political traditions or the world communism of the Soviets. Visions of Empire offers new insights into the interactions between rulers and ruled, revealing how empire was as much a shared enterprise as a clash of oppositional interests. It explores how these empires differed from nation-states, particularly in how the ruling peoples of empires were forced to downplay or suppress their own national or ethnic identities in the interests of the long-term preservation of their rule.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Visions of empire.
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The idea of empire
The Roman empire
The Ottoman empire
The Habsburg empire
The Russian and Soviet empires
The British empire
The French empire
Epilogue: nations after empires.

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