A sweeping new academic history of empires has been praised for its scope and intellectual ambition - but faulted for a critical omission that undermines its central argument. By focusing on just four empires, the study leaves out Russia entirely and ignores the Islamic empires, most notably the Ottoman Empire, which outlasted the British version by centuries.

Princeton historian Linda Colley identified the gap in her review of the work for the Financial Times, "Hvylya" reports. The study, authored by Delhi-based writer Rana Dasgupta, examines four empires through distinct lenses: France and religion, Britain and commerce, the United States and law, and China and nature. Each section is "beautifully written, based on a wealth of reading and full of sharp observations," Colley acknowledged - but the selection itself creates distortions.

Three of the four chosen empires are Western. Russia - arguably the most enduring and consequential land empire in modern history, and one currently waging a full-scale war in Europe - is absent. So is the Ottoman Empire, which remained a major power for over six centuries. The omission is particularly striking given the study's stated goal of explaining how empire persists in a supposedly post-imperial world.

Colley also pointed to a deeper analytical problem. By concentrating on individual empires, the study obscures the degree to which imperial powers across different eras and civilizations have relied on remarkably similar methods. China's current strategy of gaining control over infrastructure and resources in Africa mirrors Britain's approach to South America at its imperial peak. The toolkit persists even as the hands wielding it change.

The study's core thesis - that the nation-state "is not natural or immutable" and that empire remains a persistent force in global politics - has won broad endorsement. But the reluctance to address war as a driving force behind both nations and empires drew sharp criticism. War has been "a prime cement and disrupter of both nations and empires," Colley wrote, and any serious attempt to fix the current world order cannot avoid confronting it. As of 2023, only 24 of the world's 190-plus sovereign states qualified as full democracies.

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