A Summer Must Ethnic Read: Atlas of Empires

(Gerry Furth-Sides) In Atlas of Empires: The World’s Civilizations from Ancient Times to Today, author Peter Davidson, presents a broad historical overview of how empires rise and fall.   It provides a wonderful backdrop for cultural history as well, and how ethnic cuisines have been created in each empire, and how they link to each other.  Event information is pinpointed to the location it occurred on the 60 colorful maps.  The book is available in hard/soft cover and kindle. Please find more detail on // www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.

A clear, insightful writer who has done his research, Davidson’s work for the History Channel prompts him to write in a visual way.   Still, Atlas of Empires is definitely a reference book, a big gulp of a reference book.  So we were happy to use the Atlas and The Rise and Fall of Genghis Khan book as a thorough  //localfoodeater.com/must-visit-genghis-khan-exhibit-at-ronald-reagan-library/ way of comparing the story of the often misunderstood Mongolian Empire now that new information is available to researchers.  Both the books and the exhibit at the Ronald Reagan library corroborate each other for a fuller story.

The  60 colorful and well thought out choice of maps illustrate each of the empires’ territories at different stages of their existence.  They can be quite startling and a lesson in themselves.  The maps are categorized into themes to show the various reasons for growth and demise at various times.  

These include empires that are based on War and (keeping the) Peace; the empire that bridged the classical world and the ancient one;   empires built on Faith; Empires that were built on the Horse (Mongols) and on isolationism.

Other categories include the first global empires, the first empire nations, empires based on industrial capitalism and empires based on philosophies (the USA, The Soviet Union, and the European Union).

In each section, Davidson takes on a comparative look at government and society, wealth and technology, war and military force, and religious beliefs.  He provides insight into how the socio-political and cultural legacies of these empires are felt today.

Atlas of Empires is not only a reference book but a thought-provoking overview and reasons for history.   Early empires of the Sumerians and the Pharaohs are examined not only from a political point of view but from their politics, literature, technology, and place in the international events taking place around them.   Davidson illustrates how empires are created and organized, how their legacy was handled by later empires and how their influence is still felt in modern times.

Davidson also adds analyses of past empires in terms of what may lie ahead in the future for empires in the current globalized world.  It allows us to step far back into time as well as understand the changing landscape today.

Peter Davidson’s love of history is reflected in his far-ranging work as a restorer of antiquities from around the world, a writer and director of History Channel documentaries on World War II, and a tutor on the Politics, Philosophy and History degree at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Davidson is is the author of another intriguing book based on concepts, The Idea of North.  Not only is “north” the point we look for on a map to orient ourselves, it is also the direction taken throughout history by the adventurous, the curious, the solitary, and the foolhardy. Based in the North himself, Peter Davidson, in, explores the very concept of “north” through painting, legend, and literature. He is the co-author of Milestones of Civilization.