Description
Book SynopsisAlthough empires have shaped the political development of virtually all the states of the modern world, imperialism has not figured largely in the mainstream of scholarly literature. This book seeks to account for the imperial phenomenon and to establish its importance as a subject in the study of the theory of world politics. Michael Doyle believes that empires can best be defined as relationships of effective political control imposed by some political societiesthose called metropoleson other political societiescalled peripheries. To build an explanation of the birth, life, and death of empires, he starts with an overview and critique of the leading theories of imperialism. Supplementing theoretical analysis with historical description, he considers episodes from the life cycles of empires from the classical and modern world, concentrating on the nineteenth-century scramble for Africa. He describes in detail the slow entanglement of the peripheral societies on the Nile and the Nig
Trade Review
As a contribution to multicausal analysis of social change, this is a major work. And, as a general introduction to European imperialism, its theoretical sophistication, broad sweep, and the clear presentation and organization of historical detail leave it with few peers.
* American Journal of Sociology *
Ranging from the Athenian empire to the nineteenth century, Michael W. Doyle attempts to construct a historical sociology of empires that will encompass imperialism's infinite variety.... He recognizes the diversity of empires and imperial motivation, the French 'civilizing mission,' Spanish Catholicism and, implicitly, British 'muscular Christianity.'... The overall argument... has a persuasive simplicity and symmetry.... Empires is an excellent introduction to current theories of imperialism, and an interesting attempt at a new synthesis.
* Times Literary Supplement *
The analysis of the causes and patterns of imperialism has long been a difficult academic exercise.... To structure this far-ranging phenomenon and arrange its course in a concise, interpretive essay takes pluck, if a good adjective from the derring-do novels of empire may be used here. Michael W. Doyle had that pluck and has succeeded remarkably well in his task. This is a splendid essay, an effective combination of broad historical analysis and well-presented theoretical assessments derived from the social sciences. The book will no doubt stand as one of the best contemporary syntheses of the progress of imperialism.... Doyle has read widely and well. He has mastered his material and has done with it something masterly: he has made the whole more than the sum of the parts. What follows next from the lively mind of this scholar will be pleasantly anticipated.
* American Historical Review *
