Shadow Empires

An Alternative Imperial History

Thomas J. Barfield

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English

Princeton University Press
02 December 2025

General & world history; Colonialism & imperialism; Military history; Sociology & anthropology; Comparative politics

An original study of empire creation and its consequences, from ancient through early modern times.

The world's first great empires established by the ancient Persians, Chinese, and Romans are well known, but not the empires that emerged on their margins in response to them over the course of 2,500 years. These counterempires or shadow empires, which changed the course of history, include the imperial nomad confederacies that arose in Mongolia and extorted resources from China rather than attempting to conquer it, as well as maritime empires such as ancient Athens that controlled trade without seeking territorial hegemony. In Shadow Empires, Thomas Barfield identifies seven kinds of counterempire and explores their rise, politics, economics, and longevity.

What all these counterempires had in common was their interactions with existing empires that created the conditions for their development. When highly successful, these counterempires left the shadows to become the world's largest empires - for example, those of the medieval Muslim Arabs and of the Mongol heirs of Chinggis Khan. Three former shadow empires - Manchu Qing China, Tsarist Russia, and British India - made this transformation in the late eighteenth century and came to rule most of Eurasia. However, the DNA of their origins endured in their unique ruling strategies. Indeed, world powers still use these strategies today, long after their roots in shadow empires have been forgotten.

Looking afresh at the histories of important types of empires that are often ignored, Shadow Empires provides an original account of empire formation from the ancient world to the early modern period.

By: Thomas J. Barfield
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691278308
ISBN 10: 069127830X
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 02 December 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Thomas Barfield is professor of anthropology at Boston University. His books include Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (Princeton) and The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 1757.

Reviews for Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History

""[An] imaginative retelling of world history.""---Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times ""[An] ambitious work . . . Clear, easy to read, illuminating, and immensely learned."" * Choice * ""Very well written and is cogently organized.""---Christopher Chase-Dunn, The Developing Economies ""The book provides a handy sweep of pre-modern empires, and also a set of connections to link up the ancient with the medieval and even the modern. . . . Filled with innumerable comparative gems, Shadow Empires will prove mandatory reading.""---Michael J. Taylor, Classical Association of the Middle West and South