Empires, 2001, 546 p., ill., rel. -

Empires powerfully transformed the lives of people within and even beyond their frontiers in ways quite different from other non-imperial societies. Empires inviting comparative analysis, this book brings together studies by distinguished scholars from diverse academic traditions (anthropology, archaeology, history, classics). The empires discussed include case studies from Central and South America, the Mediterranean, Europe, the Near East, South East Asia, China, and range in time from the 1st millennium BC to the early modern era.