Book City is a very dangerous store, which cleverly and prominently displays books like Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power where innocent browsers like me will see them. I couldn't resist. Niall Ferguson is apparently the new prodigy in the British historican field, and Empire is a beautiful and extremely well-written book. It drips with detail but is far fresher and more interesting to read than any textbook. The maps, photos and paintings included are well-chosen and do a lot to support the narrative. Only the conclusion section seems weak and under-cooked: there's no modern detail included to support his theory that the American empire is similar in many ways to the British Empire, so the "lessons for global power" fall flat. Still a great book, well worth the read. 4 out of 5.
posted by Tom Leslie at 1:36 PM | link