Imperial Visions

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the Russian empire made a dramatic advance on the Pacific by annexing the vast regions of the Amur and Ussuri rivers. Although this remote realm was a virtual terra incognita for the Russian educated public, the acquisition of an 'Asian Mississippi' attracted great attention nonetheless, even stirring the dreams of Russia's most outstanding visionaries. Within a decade of its acquisition, however, the dreams were gone and the Amur region largely abandoned and forgotten. In an innovative examination of Russia's perceptions of the new territories in the Far East, Mark Bassin sets the Amur enigma squarely in the context of the Zeitgeist in Russia at the time. Imperial Visions demonstrates the fundamental importance of geographical imagination in the mentalité of imperial Russia. This 1999 work offers a truly novel perspective on the complex and ambivalent ideological relationship between Russian nationalism, geographical identity and imperial expansion.

In recent years, an interest in empire(s) has emerged in Assyriology, Old Testament/Hebrew Bible Studies and in other areas of the study of the ancient world. Collaborative research projects are devoted to questions of empire and imperialism, and the prophets of Israel and Judah and the books named after them are explored as agents in the contexts of the empires of their times. To some degree, all of this may be seen as a revival of the intense interest which the works of Oswald Spengler, Arnold Toynbee and Karl Wittfogel generated in the twentieth century, in historical situations very different from our own age. But then we too live in an age of transition characterized by insecurity and a lack of orientation and are driven to study the rise and fall of empires through the ages. The present volume, containing essays which are the fruits of the fifth meeting of the Aberdeen Prophecy Network, at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg of the University of Göttingen in October 2015, provides a distinctive perspective on prophecy in the context of empire. It is inspired by the fact that the book of Isaiah enables us to follow the vagaries of a particular prophetic tradition through five centuries under three different empires. The essays in the present volume focus on the history of composition of the constituent parts of the book of Isaiah as well as their correlations with the political and cultural histories of the empires under which they were produced. The volume thus navigates some of the key points of the history of Isaiah and the book named after him.

Explores a Byzantine emperor's construction of authority with the help of his rhetorical texts Examines the changes in the Byzantine imperial idea by the end of the fourteenth century with a particular focus on the instrumentalization of the intellectual dimension of the imperial ruleIntegrates late Byzantine imperial visions into the bigger picture of Byzantine imperial ideology Provides a fresh understanding of key pieces of Byzantine public rhetoric and introduces analytical concepts from rhetorical, literary, and discursive theoriesOffers translations of key passages from late Byzantine rhetoricManuel II Palaiologos was not only a Byzantine emperor but also a remarkably prolific rhetorician and theologian. His oeuvre included letters, treatises, dialogues, short poems and orations. Florin Leonte deals with several of his texts shaped by a didactic intention to educate the emperor's son and successor, John VIII Palaiologos. He argues that the emperor constructed a rhetorical persona which he used in an attempt to compete with other contemporary power-brokers. While Manuel Palaiologos adhered to many rhetorical conventions of his day, he also reasserted the civic role of rhetoric. With a special focus on the first two decades of Manuel II Palaiologos' rule, 1391-1417, Leonte offers a new understanding of the imperial ethos in Byzantium by combining rhetorical analysis with investigation of social and political phenomena.

"In this extraordinary volume, Krishan Kumar provides us with a brilliant tour of some of history's most important empires, demonstrating the critical importance of imperial ideas and ideologies for understanding their modalities of rule and the conflicts that beset them. In doing so, he interrogates the contested terrain between nationalism and empire and the legacies that empires leave behind."--Mark R. Beissinger, Princeton University "This is an excellent book with original insights into the history of empires and the discourses and rhetoric of their rulers and defenders. Kumar's writing is lively and free of jargon, and his research is prodigious. He manages to bring clarity and perspective to a complex subject."--Ronald Grigor Suny, author of "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide "A masterly piece of work."--Anthony Pagden, author of The Burdens of Empire: 1539 to the Present

"In this extraordinary volume, Krishan Kumar provides us with a brilliant tour of some of history's most important empires, demonstrating the critical importance of imperial ideas and ideologies for understanding their modalities of rule and the conflicts that beset them. In doing so, he interrogates the contested terrain between nationalism and empire and the legacies that empires leave behind."--Mark R. Beissinger, Princeton University "This is an excellent book with original insights into the history of empires and the discourses and rhetoric of their rulers and defenders. Kumar's writing is lively and free of jargon, and his research is prodigious. He manages to bring clarity and perspective to a complex subject."--Ronald Grigor Suny, author of "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide "A masterly piece of work."--Anthony Pagden, author of The Burdens of Empire: 1539 to the Present

Collects Star Wars: Vader - Dark Visions #1-5. Who is Darth Vader? He has been many things: enforcer, commander, destroyer. He is, to many throughout the Galactic Empire, the ultimate symbol of power and fear. But there are those who have seen the Dark Lord in a different light. Some corners of the galaxy are so desperate that even Vader can be a knight in shining armor - while for certain Imperial Commanders, Vader's anger is the price of failure. But what is it like to lose your heart to a Sith Lord - and what fate awaits the star-crossed lover who has fallen for a man so unattainable? Plus, learn how it feels to be an X-wing pilot going head-to-head with Vader's TIE Fighter - and discover more of the many sides of the galaxy's greatest villain!

An intellectual/historiographical examination of the fundamental importance of geographical imagination in the mentalité of imperial Russia, first published in 1999.

This title explores the connections between the origins of the English empire and unfree labour by exploring how England's imperial designs influenced contemporary politics and debates about labour, population, political economy, and overseas trade. It pays particular attention to how and why slavery and England's participation in the transatlantic slave trade came to be widely accepted as central to the national and imperial interest by contributing to the idea that colonies with slaves were essential for the functioning of the empire.