The story of thirteen modern Empires, a story full of suspense, cruelty, conflict, heroism, great explorations and extraordinary feats of endurance, is told here with a rich profusion of illustrations drawn from a wide range of vivid, colourful, authentic sources. This enthralling account, making use of the huge resources of modern scholarship, raises new subjects - from the differing role of men and women to ecology and food - but also shows us how the maps of explorations, the chronologies of ...