Ancient Empires
From Mesopotamia to the Rise of Islam

Ancient Empires is a relatively brief yet comprehensive and even-handed overview of the ancient Near East, the Mediterranean, and Europe, including the Greco-Roman world, Late Antiquity, and the early Muslim period. Taking a focused and thematic approach, it aims to provoke a discussion of an explicit set of themes supplemented by the reading of ancient sources. By focusing on empires and imperialism as well as modes of response and resistance, it is relevant to current discussions about order, justice, and freedom. The book concludes that some of the ancient world's most enduring ideas, value systems, and institutions were formulated by peoples who were resisting the great empires. It analyzes the central, if problematic, connection between political and ideological power in both empire formation and resistance. The intricate interrelations among ideological, economic, military, and political power are explored for every empire and resisting group.

Reviews & endorsements

'… this is a stimulating essay, one that rewards a careful reader with new insights into a variety of issues. The maps are useful and readable; other illustrative material is always clearly integrated into the narrative and appropriately placed in the text … Ancient Empires should assist academic readers, in general not just specialists in the ancient world, in posing better questions in their own work. Better questions, like those raised in [this book], yield better research.' Thomas Burns, Ancient History Bulletin

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Product details

• Date Published: June 2011
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521717809
• length: 386 pages

• dimensions: 255 x 178 x 20 mm
• weight: 0.81kg
• contains: 131 b/w illus. 14 maps
• availability: Available