“Two thousand years of empire compressed into two hundred pages, without sacrifice of detail or lucidity. The breadth of vision is phenomenal.” —Roy Porter
“Masterly . . . Pagden has an unerring sense of evidence, a gift of lucidity, an eye for a good story, a sharp taste for argument, and a vivid, pithy way with words. . . . He combines without obvious contrivance a survey and a story, with broad horizons and a perfect pace.” —Felipe Fernández-Armesto
“Without condescension, [Pagden] writes lucidly for the educated non-expert. Sketching a huge territory of knowledge, his compact essay belongs to a series . . . which on the strength of this volume is an admirable publishing venture indeed.” —Chicago Tribune
