本书是一部波澜壮阔的帝国统治史，始于公元前3世纪，绵延至20世纪中期。幅员广袤的世界诸帝国在这一时期纷纷登上历史舞台。影响深远的罗马帝国，勇武虔诚的拜占庭帝国和阿拉伯帝国，年寿不永的加洛林帝国，灵活务实的蒙古帝国、奥斯曼帝国、俄罗斯帝国，自成一体的中华帝国以及彻底开启全球化进程的西方诸帝国……它们各不相同的统治策略深刻影响了世界历史的发展轨迹。作者不仅关注它们如何崛起、竞争并形成其独特制度与统治实践，而且超越对历史细节的泛泛叙述，将帝国作为一种统治形式加以分析考察。同时本书借助对各个帝国统治策略、施政传统的一系列对比，充分展示其内部的差异性、丰富性和复杂性，从而加深了我们对帝国统治史的理解。本书曾获2011年世界史学会年度图书奖。

Empires - vast states of territories and people united by force and ambition - have dominated the political landscape for more than two millennia. "Empires in World History" departs from conventional European and nation-centered perspectives to take a remarkable look at how empires relied on diversity to shape the global order. Beginning with ancient Rome and China and continuing across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa, Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper examine empires' conquests, rivalries, and strategies of domination - with an emphasis on how empires accommodated, created, and manipulated differences among populations. Burbank and Cooper examine Rome and China from the third century BCE, empires that sustained state power for centuries. They delve into the militant monotheism of Byzantium, the Islamic Caliphates, and the short-lived Carolingians, as well as the pragmatically tolerant rule of the Mongols and Ottomans, who combined religious protection with the politics of loyalty. Burbank and Cooper discuss the influence of empire on capitalism and popular sovereignty, the limitations and instability of Europe's colonial projects, Russia's repertoire of exploitation and differentiation, as well as the "empire of liberty" - devised by American revolutionaries and later extended across a continent and beyond. With its investigation into the relationship between diversity and imperial states, "Empires in World History" offers a fresh approach to understanding the impact of empires on the past and present.