... stimulating.

Lieven’s attempts to make the work relevant to modern audiences are usually successful, and his chapters on non-Western European empires provide important background and context for current world affairs. Sometimes the language is a bit dry and academic, but this is nevertheless an engaging read that manages to summarize and synthesize information on almost every major empire in history without getting weighed down by its own scope.

... an instructive epic, deficient only in that the author does not pursue his subject to the present day.

Particularly appealing are the author’s significant discussions of the Chinese emperors, who were first endowed with a sense of the so-called 'Mandate of Heaven'.

... erudite.