The Great Empires of Asia

This book is a help to those who do want to know something about great empires of Asia. Since it is intended to be a survey, it lack details that would be important to those who wish to learn in greater depth. It is a good starting place for further reading.

"The Great Empires of Asia," edited by Jim Masselos with contributions from seven specialists, is a lavishly-illustrated study that defines Asia broadly. At the western extreme we have the Ottoman Empire of the Mediterranean and the Safavid Persian Empire. South Asia is represented by the Mughals of India, and moving eastward we have the Khmer of Cambodia, the Mongols, the Ming Dynasty of China, and Japan. In one instance, that of the Ottomans whose empire collapsed following the end of World War I, nearly seven hundred years are covered, whereas the focus on Japan stretches only from 1868 to 1945, as the country modernized, fought wars with neighbors, and went down to defeat in World War II. With the focus on expansionist eras, the book lacks complete sweeps of history. All told then, we have what resembles nothing so much as a tasting menu with a unifying theme, and readers seeking greater depth and breadth regarding the fascinating societies covered will have to seek that elsewhere.

This is an excellent account of 7 eastern empires reanging from the longest -the Khmer empire from 800AD to 1566 to the shortast fhe Meiji restoration 1866 to 1945.For each of the 7 empires there is an extensive text with first class illustrations.Each text covers the rise of the empire,the type of government, the problems faced by the empire and fjnally its demise.The book is an absolute necessityfor any person interested in the history of the east.

Muito bom. Satisfeito

When great empires are discussed, the list runs: Roman, Persian, Egyptian, Alexandrian, erm, Aztec? The great empires of eastern and central Asia are often overlooked. This book redresses that balance.A different expert covers each empire and this works alright. There was only one contributor whose work was that dry I gave up on it and another that was a bit so so. The rest were mostly fine, with the Mongols being the stand out. Every single contribution taught me quite a bit about areas that I'm relatively unfamiliar with. It was nice to see modern spellings for names and places. This did take a bit of getting used to, but it's good to see positive changes like this.Most of the papers were detailed enough to give you a good overview, but not so much as to get you lost in a welter of detail. However, a few felt quite shallow.It was great that each empire was considered on its own terms and not through its contacts with the West. That made it quite a refreshing read.Overall, though, this book felt a trifle lightweight.

This is not a bad book, nor is it uninteresting. However it is still a fairly superficial overview of seven Asian Empires, with only the Khmer Empire relatively unknown. It looks briefly at their structures and achievements, and their eventual downfalls. A pleasant read, but it doesn’t give you much more than that.

It has wonderful summary of the history of some Asian countries and is a useful scholarly introduction to those countries, should you be planning a visit.

Interesting, informative and well illustrated.But not revelatory, hencr 3 stars.