"A splendid history.... If Americans want to be convinced of the benefits of empire, as well as apprised of its costs, they need merely pick up Ferguson's dazzling book." -- Weekly Standard 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.

尼爾·弗格森，英國最著名的曆史學傢之一。哈佛大學曆史係教授、牛津大學高級研究員，同時也是斯坦福大學鬍佛研究所的高級研究員。他是極少數能橫跨學術界、金融界和媒體的專傢之一。著有《貨幣崛起》等多部暢銷書，同時還為多傢報紙和雜誌撰稿。此外，他還製作瞭四部非常成功的電視紀錄片：《帝國》、《美國巨人》、《世界戰爭》，以及最近的《貨幣崛起》。2004年被《時代》周刊評為“影響世界的100人”之一。