Empire: The Russian Empire and Its Rivals

Focusing on the Tsarist and Soviet empires of Russia, Dominic Lieven in this wide-ranging book reveals much about the nature and meaning of all empires in history. He examines factors that mold the shape of empires-geography, population, ideology, culture, politics-and compares the Russian empires with their direct competitors and with other imperial states, from ancient China and Rome to the present-day United States.