Timothy Parsons

Why do empires rise and why do they fall? To answer this question, Timothy Parsons casts his gaze across seven historical moments - from ancient Rome to Muslim Spain, from Britain's "new" imperialism in Kenya, to the Third Reich. From these very different examples, he draws out common features about empires' evolutions, their self-justifying myths, and the reasons for their inevitable decline.

Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall

The Rule of Empires

Frank Crispino

James J. Nolan

This book tackles the contentious issue of policing in an age of controversy and uncertainty. It is a timely book written by police scholars — predominantly former practitioners from Europe, Australia and North America — who draw from their own research and operational experiences to illuminate key issues relating to police reform in the present day. While acknowledging some relevance of usual proposed models, such as problem-solving, evidence-based policing and procedural justice, the contributors provide an insider look at a variety of perspectives and approaches to police reform which have emerged in recent decades. It invites university students, criminologists, social scientists, police managers, forensic scientists to question and adapt their perspectives on a broad range of topics such as community policing, hate crime, Islamic radicalisation, neighborhood dynamics, situational policing, antidiscrimination and civil society, police ethics, performance measures, and advances in forensic science, technology, intelligence and more in an accessible and comprehensive manner.

An Agenda for Research and Practice

Policing in an Age of Reform

In The Rule of Empires, Timothy Parsons gives a sweeping account of the evolution of empire from its origins in ancient Rome to its most recent twentieth-century embodiment. He explains what constitutes an empire and offers suggestions about what empires of the past can tell us about our own historical moment. Parsons uses imperial examples that stretch from ancient Rome, to Britain's "new" imperialism in Kenya, to the Third Reich to parse the features common to all empires, their evolutions and self-justifying myths, and the reasons for their inevitable decline. Parsons argues that far from confirming some sort of Darwinian hierarchy of advanced and primitive societies, conquests were simply the products of a temporary advantage in military technology, wealth, and political will. Beneath the self-justifying rhetoric of benevolent paternalism and cultural superiority lay economic exploitation and the desire for power. Yet imperial ambitions still appear viable in the twenty-first century, Parsons shows, because their defenders and detractors alike employ abstract and romanticized perspectives that fail to grasp the historical reality of subjugation. Writing from the perspective of the common subject rather than that of the imperial conquerors, Parsons offers a historically grounded cautionary tale rich with accounts of subjugated peoples throwing off the yoke of empire time and time again. In providing an accurate picture of what it is like to live as a subject, The Rule of Empires lays bare the rationalizations of imperial conquerors and their apologists and exposes the true limits of hard power.

The African Rank-and-File explores why East Africans in the King's African Rifles (KAR) served a foreign power, which denied them the rights of full citizenship and was at best paternalistic and at worst openly oppressive. The KAR was a viable institution because it advanced, to varying degrees, the interests of the colonial state, the British military establishment, and African soldiers. These interests were quite often contradictory, and it took an ongoing process of negotiation and accommodation over the social status of the African soldiery to make the KAR work. Tensions such as these were not unique to the colonial military; the co-option of Africans as chiefs, policemen, teachers, and clergymen produced similar points of friction. Like other important intermediary classes, African soldiers performed a vital service for the colonial regime and sought to exploit its inherent weaknesses to enhance their position in colonial society. Their ability to do so exposed some of the most fu

Social Implications of Colonial Military Service in the King's African Rifles, 1902-1964

The African Rank-and-file

Exploration of 1964 East African army mutinies that analyzes institutional violence, aggression, and military unrest in former colonial societies.

The 1964 Army Mutinies and the Making of Modern East Africa

Judith A. Byfield

Carolyn A. Brown

Ahmad Alawad Sikainga

This volume offers a fresh perspective on Africa's central role in the Allied victory in World War II. Its detailed case studies, from all parts of Africa, enable us to understand how African communities sustained the Allied war effort and how they were transformed in the process. Together, the chapters provide a continent-wide perspective.

Timothy Parsons

About

Books

Join the club