Atlas of Empires

Atlas of Empires by Peter Davidson tells a tale of how and why the great empires of history flourished but inevitably fell and explains what this might mean to our current globalised world. The driving forces that gave impetus to the empires are examined in detail – belief systems, culture, trade networks, warfare in their time etc. The catalogue begins with the Sumerians and the Egyptians and attempts to explain how such empires are created, organised, gain momentum, and how they are eventually faced by the problems of feeding an expanding population and the eternal division between those content to enjoy the blessings and those who seek to dominate and rule and if necessary, exterminate. The book is published by New Holland Publishers in the UK and is available through book shops. It will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue of one of our journals and for the moment, its usefulness to members is that it is a tool with which to explore chronology – in a broad brush concept. We might also be able to discern a pattern in the natural world – what might have provoked the stresses and the cracks that struck empires in the past, and why did perfectly good agricultural practises sometimes founder.