From ancient times to our modern age, western empires have shaped societies around the world. Imperial powers have impacted all aspects of human experience as well as the natural world; from trade patterns and migration to sexuality, race and the environment. A Cultural History of Western Empires seeks to explore the role of culture in shaping how empire took root, took shape, was maintained and challenged.
This volume explores the cultural history of western empires in the middle ages, from 800-1450 CE. It spans the subjugation of the Saxons and the rule of the Carolingians to the Habsburgs, just before the birth of the Renaissance and the 'discovery' of the Americas. Guiding the reader through eight carefully chosen themes; war, trade, natural worlds, labor, mobility, sexuality, resistance and race across eight chapters, it asks if there was such a thing as 'medieval empire' and explores how the culture and human experience of this era was ruled, shaped and redirected by imperial powers.
A Cultural History of Western Empires presents historians, and scholars and students of related fields, with the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the cultural history of empire from ancient times to modernity.