Annotation. The British Empire was the largest in all history: the nearest thing to world domination ever achieved. By the eve of World War II, around a quarter of the world's land surface was under some form of British rule. Yet for today's generation, the British Empire seems a Victorian irrelevance. The time is ripe for a reappraisal, and in Empire , Niall Ferguson boldly recasts the British Empire as one of the world's greatest modernizing forces. An important new work of synthesis and revision, Empire argues that the world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's Age of Empire. The spread of capitalism, the communications revolution, the notion of humanitarianism, and the institutions of parliamentary democracy-all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population, and culture from the seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth. On a vast and vividly colored canvas, Empire shows how the British Empire acted as midwife to modernity. Displaying the originality and rigor that have made him the brightest light among British historians, Ferguson shows that the story of the Empire is pregnant with lessons for today-in particular for the United States as it stands on the brink of a new era of imperial power, based once again on economic and military supremacy. A dazzling tour de force, Empire is a remarkable reappraisal of the prizes and pitfalls of global empire.

注释。大英帝国是历史上最大的帝国：是有史以来最接近于世界统治的东西。到二战前夕，世界上约有四分之一的陆地面积处于某种形式的英国统治之下。然而，对今天这一代人来说，大英帝国似乎是一个维多利亚时代的无关紧要的东西。重新评估的时机已经成熟，在《帝国》中，尼尔-弗格森大胆地将大英帝国重新塑造为世界上最伟大的现代化力量之一。作为一部重要的综合与修正的新作品，《帝国》认为，我们今天所知道的世界在很大程度上是英国帝国时代的产物。资本主义的传播、通讯革命、人道主义概念和议会民主制度--所有这些都可以追溯到英国从17世纪到20世纪中期经济、人口和文化的非凡扩张。在一幅巨大的、色彩鲜艳的画布上，《帝国》展示了大英帝国如何作为现代性的助产士发挥作用。弗格森展示了使他成为英国历史学家中最耀眼的人物的独创性和严谨性，他表明，帝国的故事对今天来说充满了教训--特别是对美国来说，因为它正站在一个新的帝国权力时代的边缘，再次以经济和军事优势为基础。帝国》是一部令人眼花缭乱的作品，它对全球帝国的奖赏和陷阱进行了出色的重新评估。