After Tamerlane

The Global History of Empire Since 1405

By: John Darwin

Narrated by: Peter Johnson

Tamerlane, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Manchus, the British, the Japanese, the Nazis, and the Soviets: All built empires meant to last forever; all were to fail. But, as John Darwin shows in this magisterial book, their empire-building created the world we know today.

From the death of Tamerlane in 1405, to America's rise to world "hyperpower," to the resurgence of China and India as global economic powers, After Tamerlane is a grand historical narrative that offers a new perspective on the past, present, and future of empires.

©2008 John Darwin (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Comprehensive Single Volume

Simply the best comprehensive one volume history of the modern era. If you're wondering why the world looks the way it does, you have to read this one.

Wow. Impressive width and deep analysis combine

Scope is enormous, the idea of Eurasia as a particular geographic location for ideas and habits and large states rather than Europe and Asia is convincing. I thought more about The ubiquity of empires small and large. No hero worshipping but no bashing of victors either. A Really intelligent book. Hard to put down. Not David Harvey and definitely not Niall Ferguson (thank goodness)

Wildly deceptive propaganda.

The author takes great pains throughout the book to downplay European achievements at every turn. He takes great pains to describe every single roadblock or difficulty European armies, colonizers, explorers, merchants, artists, philosophers, and writers faced in building their civilization. Then, he works hard to describe every single achievement possible of the Muslim, Indian, Aztec, Chinese, and Japanese societies. Especially before 1400. Once these achievements begin to die off in the 1600-1700s the author pivots to describing mistakes Europeans were making in the mercantile revolution and early colonization. He doesn’t mention that the Ming and Ching dynasties not only failed to fund exploratory ventures like European kings did, but that they actively banned private citizens from doing so. The Qing treated merchants trying to sell their products in South Asia just like pirates. The Ming nationalized the thriving Iron foundries of the Song dynasty and crippled the industrial heartland of Fujian which had been exporting products abroad under the mongols. The Ottoman Empire banned the printing press in 1744. All of these disastrous mistakes which retarded the development of the rest of the world go unexplored by the author.

He is too well read and researched to have missed these things. He is willfully choosing to downplay the dynamism, love of science, and unique military and economic prowess of the West. This book is such a missed opportunity. To read it with an uncritical eye is to assume from Egypt to India to Japan thriving advanced societies moved forward very similar to Europeans until very late in history. Then magically, mostly through dumb luck, slavery, good geography, and population dynamics the West took off in the 1800s. Nothing could be further from the truth. What a travesty for such an intelligent author to so widely misunderstand the importance of Christianity laying the foundations for the scientific method and human rights.