Walter Scheidel

Peter Fibiger Bang

The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean offers a comprehensive survey of ancient state formation in western Eurasia and North Africa. Eighteen experts introduce readers to a wide variety of systems spanning 4,000 years, from the earliest known states in world history to the Roman Empire and its immediate successors. They seek to understand the inner workings of these states by focusing on key issues: political and military power, the impact of ideologies, the rise and fall of individual polities, and the mechanisms of cooperation, coercion, and exploitation. This shared emphasis on critical institutions and dynamics invites comparative and cross-cultural perspectives. A detailed introductory review of contemporary approaches to the study of the state puts the rich historical case studies in context. Transcending conventional boundaries between ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean history and between ancient and early medieval history, this volume will be of interest not only to historians but also anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists, and political scientists. Its accessible style and up-to-date references will make it an invaluable resource for both students and scholars.

The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean

Dariusz Kolodziejczyk

This book explores the aspiration to universal, imperial rule across Eurasian history from antiquity to the eighteenth century.

A Comparative Approach to Imperial Culture and Representation in Eurasian History

Universal Empire

C. A. Bayly

This is the first world history of empire, reaching from the third millennium BCE to the present. By combining synthetic surveys, thematic comparative essays, and numerous chapters on specific empires, its two volumes provide unparalleled coverage of imperialism throughout history and across continents, from Asia to Europe and from Africa to the Americas. Only a few decades ago empire was believed to be a thing of the past; now it is clear that it has been and remains one of the most enduring forms of political organization and power. We cannot understand the dynamics and resilience of empire without moving decisively beyond the study of individual cases or particular periods, such as the relatively short age of European colonialism. The history of empire, as these volumes amply demonstrate, needs to be drawn on the much broader canvas of global history. Volume Two: The History of Empires tracks the protean history of political domination from the very beginnings of state formation in the Bronze Age up to the present. Case studies deal with the full range of the historical experience of empire, from the realms of the Achaemenids and Asoka to the empires of Mali and Songhay, and from ancient Rome and China to the Mughals, American settler colonialism, and the Soviet Union. Forty-five chapters detailing the history of individual empires are tied together by a set of global synthesizing surveys that structure the world history of empire into eight chronological phases.

Volume Two: The History of Empires

The Oxford World History of Empire

It has long been held by historians that trade and markets in the Roman Empire resembled those found later in early modern Europe. Using the concept of the bazaar, however, Peter Bang argues that the development spawned by Roman hegemony proves clear similarities with large, pre-colonial or tributary empires such as the Ottoman, the Mughal in India, and the Ming/Ch'ing in China. By comparing Roman market formation particularly with conditions in the Mughal Empire, Bang changes our comparative horizons and situates the ongoing debate over the Roman economy firmly within wider discussions about world history and the 'great divergence' between east and west. The broad scope of this book takes in a wide range of topics, from communal networks and family connections to imperial cultures of consumption, and will therefore be of great interest to scholars and students of ancient history and pre-industrial economics.

A Comparative Study of Trade and Markets in a Tributary Empire

The Roman Bazaar

Tracing the evolution of the state from its beginnings to the early Middle Ages, this comprehensive handbook focuses on key institutions and dynamics while providing accessible accounts of states and empires in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean.

Mamoru Ikeguchi

Harmut G. Ziche

Archaeology, Comparative History, Models and Institutions

Ancient Economies, Modern Methodologies

Fremmed og moderne soger at Aendre vores syn pa den antikke kulturs efterliv i europAeisk civilisation. I dag betragter vi antikken som stivnet tradition, en forbigangen fortid. Men antikken har ikke primAert fungeret som udtryk for det etablerede. Derimod har antikken inspireret generationer af europAeere, fordi den reprAesenterede noget fremmedartet og genstridigt i deres univers. Den antikke erfaring har modsagt mange efterfolgende tidsaldres forestillinger. Pa den made kom den til at virke som en kreativt, udfordrende og inspirerende kraft i europAeisk kultur. Den udfordrede europAeerne ved at vise at det velkendte kunne tAenkes anderledes. Antikken var - og er - bade fremmed og moderne.

Glimt af antikken i Europa

Fremmed og moderne

Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History C A Bayly

Professor of Classics and by Courtesy History Walter Scheidel

Volume Two: the History of Empires

The claim by certain rulers to universal empire has a long history stretching as far back as the Assyrian and Achaemenid Empires. This book traces its various manifestations in classical antiquity, the Islamic world, Asia and Central America as well as considering seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European discussions of international order. As such it is an exercise in comparative world history combining a multiplicity of approaches, from ancient history, to literary and philosophical studies, to the history of art and international relations and historical sociology. The notion of universal, imperial rule is presented as an elusive and much coveted prize among monarchs in history, around which developed forms of kingship and political culture. Different facets of the phenomenon are explored under three, broadly conceived, headings: symbolism, ceremony and diplomatic relations; universal or cosmopolitan literary high-cultures; and, finally, the inclination to present universal imperial rule as an expression of cosmic order.

Peter Fibiger Bang

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