The Rule of Empires by Timothy Parsons (OUP, £16.99) (From The Northern Echo)

The Rule of Empires by Timothy Parsons (OUP, £16.99)

10:25am Saturday 4th September 2010 in

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THE very idea of empire is obviously anathema to Timothy Parsons and his book will be seen in many quarters as just another case of empirebashing.

His specific targets here include Roman Britain, Muslim Spain and British Kenya, and he is merciless in flaying those who built empires and exposing the sufferings of those who endured them, while joyfully celebrating their inevitable fall.

But he does not answer one prime question.

If not empire, then what is the alternative in many cases? Even democracy can be defined as a kind of empire for it too involves the rule of the majority by the minority.

And however Liberal the system, there will always be the controlled and the controllers.