Understanding emperors

From the rise of Sargon of Akkad, who in the third millennium BCE ruled what is now Iraq and Syria, to the collapse of the great European empires in the twentieth century, the empire has been the dominant form of power in history. Dominic Lieven’s expansive book explores strengths and failings of the human beings who held those empires together—or let them crumble. He delves into the power, terror, magnificence, and confidence of imperial monarchy, tracking what they had in common, as well as what made some rise to glory and others fail spectacularly, and at what price each destiny was reached.

The rule of the emperor may be over, but Lieven shows us how we live with its political and cultural legacies today.

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