Modern Empires ─ A Reader

Based on the central role that the study of documents plays in the history classroom, Modern Empires: A Reader presents the history of modern empires across the globe from the late fifteenth century to the present. The anthology's chronological, geographical, and thematic range offers special pedagogical benefits in light of the growing attention to the history of empire. Featuring voices from all levels of society and all parts of the world, this book stresses the complexity of empires when seen from multiple points of view. The introduction provides a thorough synopsis of the rise and fall of empires and also presents themes on which to base class discussions: Are empires chaotic systems or do they lead to systems of world governance? Are empires agents of integration and civilization or agents of violence and destruction? What is the nature of individual participation in empire? What is the role of resistance in the evolution of empire?

The selection of sources in Modern Empires portrays an imperial panorama and charts its wide-ranging effects on individual nations and the unfolding history of the world. Providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date collection of documents from modern empires around the world, Modern Empires: A Reader makes explicit the connections between imperialism and modern globalization.

Bonnie G. Smith is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History Emerita at Rutgers University. She is the author of several books, including Women's Studies: The Basics (2013) and Europe in the Contemporary World: 1900 to Present: A Narrative History with Documents (2007). She is also the coauthor, along with Lynn Hunt and Thomas R. Martin, of The Making of the West: A Concise History (2013), and the general editor of the four-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History (OUP, 2008), which won the American Library Association Outstanding Reference Work Award.