Description

‘An exceptional account.’ Prospect
‘Enlightening.’ Spectator

For the first time in millennia we live without formal empires. But that doesn’t mean we don’t feel their presence rumbling through history. The Great Imperial Hangover examines how the world’s imperial legacies are still shaping the thorniest issues we face today.

From Russia’s incursions in the Ukraine to Brexit; from Trump’s ‘America-first’ policy to China’s forays into Africa; from Modi’s India to the hotbed of the Middle East, Puri provides a bold new framework for understanding the world’s complex rivalries and politics.

Organised by region, and covering vital topics such as security, foreign policy, national politics and commerce, The Great Imperial Hangover combines gripping history and astute analysis to explain why the history of empire affects us all in profound ways.

Publisher Review

Enlightening... [Puri] makes a credible case for how, in the US and China, imperial legacies have left those powers with different values that would be hard to reconcile. * Spectator * Puri has many penetrating insights into the way the legacies of empire still affect the behaviour of states and the international climate. * Financial Times * An exceptional account, both personal and scholarly. * Prospect * Masterly. I found new insights on almost every page. It achieves the remarkable feat of deepening our self-knowledge while at the same time broadening our understanding of the world around us. * Paul Strathern, author of Rise and Fall: A History of the World in Ten Empires * An excellent read. Samir Puri has written a calm, distilled and bracing book. * Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Return of Marco Polo's World * Well written, comprehensive and judicious... a stimulating book. * New York Times * This is a masterly, engaging, thought-provoking and wide-ranging study of how the vestiges of past empires shape the ways in which the world works today. * James Daybell, author of Histories of the Unexpected * A timely and important re-thinking of imperial dominion. * Sam Willis, author of The Struggle for Sea Power *