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Ron Peters's Reviews > In the Shadow of the Gods: The Emperor in World History
In the Shadow of the Gods: The Emperor in World History
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This was a moderately interesting read, especially on the theme of geopolitics, but it wasn’t what I expected or hoped for. One of the history books I enjoyed best in the last few years because it brought such an interesting new lens to history, was Peter Frankopan’s (2017) The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.
I had hoped, based on a review (https://tinyurl.com/497fwbmj) and from scanning the cover, that Lieven’s book might yield a similar broad interpretative take on global historic trends, but it doesn’t. The best part of the book, in this regard, is the short Afterword (read that in the bookstore and save yourself $47).
Most of the book simply ends up being a long string of potted histories of emperors (and a few empresses) and their empires. Plainly this can be interesting when he writes about reigns you are unfamiliar with, but it will be highly unenlightening for reigns that you know.
When Lieven does give examples of principles that generalize to other times and places, they are so generic as to be trite, along the lines of “diplomacy is important.” I can’t recommend this book unless you know very little about the history of various emperors and empires and, even then, I don’t believe you will learn much about their overall role in shaping world history.
I had hoped, based on a review (https://tinyurl.com/497fwbmj) and from scanning the cover, that Lieven’s book might yield a similar broad interpretative take on global historic trends, but it doesn’t. The best part of the book, in this regard, is the short Afterword (read that in the bookstore and save yourself $47).
Most of the book simply ends up being a long string of potted histories of emperors (and a few empresses) and their empires. Plainly this can be interesting when he writes about reigns you are unfamiliar with, but it will be highly unenlightening for reigns that you know.
When Lieven does give examples of principles that generalize to other times and places, they are so generic as to be trite, along the lines of “diplomacy is important.” I can’t recommend this book unless you know very little about the history of various emperors and empires and, even then, I don’t believe you will learn much about their overall role in shaping world history.
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