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Reviews

'No scholar has done more than Anthony Pagden to direct attention to the forms and fates of empire across human history. The Burdens of Empire should command a wide audience among intellectual historians, political theorists, early modernists, and imperial historians at all levels.' David Armitage, Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History and Chair of History, Harvard University, Massachusetts, and author of Foundations of Modern International Thought 'These brilliant meditations on the durability of empire as a political form, and on the imperial origins of universal ideals from Stoic cosmopolitanism to international law and contemporary human rights, repeatedly demonstrate the novel theoretical insight that can come from immersive historical study. The chapter on imperial Spain ('Cambiar su ser') is a tour de force that exhibits Pagden's unrivalled authority on the political thought of the Spanish empire. With trenchant analysis, a wealth of information, and great breadth of reference, The Burdens of Empire breathes fresh life into themes from European aspirations to civilize 'barbarians', to the dangers of unlimited expansion, to the rise of political economy in the eighteenth century.' Jennifer Pitts, University of Chicago 'Anthony Pagden has long been among the most penetrating and learned historians of early modern empire and political thought. The Burdens of Empire charts, with extraordinary lucidity, the implication of law in the European project of empire. This history includes complex efforts of both constraint on conquest and its legitimation. Above all, Pagden reveals the endowment left to the project of international law by its birth, alongside modern nationalism, in the crucible of the nineteenth century.' Cliff Ando, David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor, University of Chicago

Author Information

Anthony Pagden is Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Political Science and History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has been a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; Senior Research Fellow of the Warburg Institute, London; Professor of History at the European University Institute, Florence; University Reader in Intellectual History and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; and the Harry C. Black Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of more than a dozen books, many of which have been translated into a number of European and Asian languages. His most recent publications include Worlds and War: The 2,500-Year Struggle between East and West (2008) and The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters (2013). He has also written for the New Republic, the National Interest, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, El País (Spain), Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy), the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement.

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