Reading List 2013

One major component of Empire in Asia: A New Global History is an active reading group, involving all project members. The project aims to reconsider the historical experience of empire in Asia, with particular reference to scholarship devoted to analyzing narratives, and systems, of world and global history. The major workshops the project will conduct are exercises in working through to a set of common questions and concerns that contributors can be asked to apply in their own particular study. Exploring the literature will thus help us lay a common intellectual foundation for conceptualizing our own question-driven approach to studying the historical experience of empire in Asia. We are less concerned with the field identified as "post-colonial" studies than with engaging global perspectives on what constituted an empire, and the evolution and operation of forms of supranational systems.

The reading list worked on in 2013 focused more closely on works analyzing Asian experiences, practices, concepts and consequences of modern empire and imperialism. The selection again ranges from standard to recent work, organized primarily by geographic regional distinctions. This list lead into our first workshop in November 2013, which can be examined by clicking on the Events link above.