A Very Short Review: Empire
Jan. 30th, 2012 23:36![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ahorbinskiHowe, Stephen. Empire: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
As befits a book in the Very Short Introduction series, I shall attempt to keep this post Very Short. To wit, Howe does a good job at laying out a reasonably thorough and systematic understanding of what empire is, what it does, and what it leaves behind; he is commendably strict about definitions of terms, and about using them precisely. Howe is a historian of modern Britain and Ireland, and he does, notably, incline to think that empires are things more than they are processes, and his account is understandably weighted more towards the modern than the ancient. Nor is he really inclined to evaluate empire as such favorably, both of which of course only provide a good springboard for further productive discussion.
In conclusion: A+, would teach to undergraduates again.
As befits a book in the Very Short Introduction series, I shall attempt to keep this post Very Short. To wit, Howe does a good job at laying out a reasonably thorough and systematic understanding of what empire is, what it does, and what it leaves behind; he is commendably strict about definitions of terms, and about using them precisely. Howe is a historian of modern Britain and Ireland, and he does, notably, incline to think that empires are things more than they are processes, and his account is understandably weighted more towards the modern than the ancient. Nor is he really inclined to evaluate empire as such favorably, both of which of course only provide a good springboard for further productive discussion.
In conclusion: A+, would teach to undergraduates again.