Joshua Bell's Reviews > Empire: A New History of the World

Strathern writes both clearly and succinctly, especially for an academic. He doesn't necessarily bring anything knew to World History through this book, but it provides a narration for how history does, in fact, repeat with slight variations.

I particularly enjoyed what he had to say about the Russian and American Empire. He contrasted them well and provided a interesting not-an-empire empire case for America. Those were by far his strongest chapters. His writing on the Mongols was excellent as well. In contrast, the Akkadians and the British chapters lacked in storytelling. The Akkadians provided him an opportunity to clearly define what an empire is. I am not convinced that he did as well as he could have.

All in all, not a must read but a good one.