Includes bibliographical references (pages 132-134) and index

Introduction: I read the news today -- 1. Who's an imperialist? -- 2. Empire by land -- 3. Empire by sea -- 4. Ends and aftermaths of empire -- 5. Studying and judging empires "The history of the world is the history of empires - a history that has not come to an end. Not only are we living with the legacies of the great colonial empires of the past, but also with the new economic-based imperial systems of the modern world. There are those who think that the Internet is a new kind of 'global empire', that the idea of 'international law' is a gigantic fraud, and even that Britain is itself the last colony of the British Empire." "This book achieves what others on this subject have failed to do: it looks at what the 'idea of empire' has meant throughout history - from the ancient Roman Empire, through the reign of Genghis Khan, the British Raj, the colonization of the Americas by the seafaring Spanish, the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the Soviet Empire, to the present day - disentangling the multiple uses and abuses of such labels as 'empire' and 'colonial', and offering a compelling look at the profound changes in the modern world."--BOOK JACKET

1350L Lexile