I have listed precise citations for the Introduction and Chapter I, where I have used a large variety of sources. Quotation sources in the later chapters are mostly indicated in the text; others are taken from the Recommended Reading books.
Introduction: Three Telling Tales of Empire
p. 1. ‘the oceans of . . .’, many sources repeat versions of this phrase, see for instance, Niall Ferguson, Civilization (London, 2011), p. 29.
p. 2. ‘a king without . . .’, see Miles Menander Dawson, The Wisdom of Confucius (Boston, 1932), pp. 57-8.
p. 2. ‘to proceed all the way. . .’, cited cover, Gavin Menzies, 1421 (London, 2003).
p. 3. ‘at best circumstantial . . .’, Ferguson, Civilization, p. 29.
p. 3. ‘a number of medieval . . .’, Menzies, 1421, p. 241.
p. 3. ‘the Chinese . . . had discovered . . .’, see: Junk History, ABC Four Corners programme, 31 July 2006, consulted 1.6.2018.
p. 4. ‘were hostile to commerce . . .’, Christopher Lascelles, A Short History of the World (London, 2012), p.65.
p. 4. ‘one of the greatest . . .’, C. Simon Fan, Culture, Institution and Development in China (London, 2016), p. 97.
p. 4. ‘for the perpetual prevention . . .’, for this and subsequent citations re the Golghar, see for instance Jan Morris, The Stones of Empire (Oxford, 2005 ed.), pp. 220–2.
p. 6. ‘However, the complexity of . . Secret Report LA-602, ‘Ignition of Atmosphere with Nuclear Bombs’, stamped ‘unclassified 7/30/79’, p. 18. p. 7. ‘even more dangerous . . Alex Wellerstein blog, ‘Nuclear Secrecy’, cited John Horgan, Scientific American, 3 August 2015.
p. 8. ‘It was subsequently determined . . see Wikipedia entry on Stanislav Petrov, citing as source Channel 4, 1983: The Brink of the Apocalypse: section on Petrov starts 29.06 mins into programme, consulted 5.6.2018. p. 9. ‘All right . . . all right . . original script of Monty Python’s Life of Brian posted on internet, consulted 5.6.2018.
p. 10. ‘An extensive territory . . .’, see Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford, 1989, 2nd ed.), vol. 5.
Chapter 1: The Akkadian Empire
p. 13. ‘During the flooding . . .’, Herodotus, The Histories, bk 2, p. 97.
p. 14. ‘two and two of all . . .,’ Genesis 7: 14-15.
p.16. ‘My mother was a changeling . . .’, cited Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq (London, 1980), p. 145.
p. 16. ‘tore down the . . .’, et seq, cited Roux, Iraq, p. 146.
p. 17. ‘dug up the soil of the pit . . .’, ‘The Chronicle of Early Kings’, ABC 20: 18–19.
p. 17. ‘ [Sargon] had neither rival nor . . .’, ‘The Chronicle of Early Kings’ at Livius.org, adapted from Grayson, 1975 and Glassner, 2004.
p. 18. ‘washed his weapons . . .’, see Amelie Kurt, in The Ancient Near East (London, 1995), vol. 1, p. 49.
p. 19. ‘who ate bread . . .’, cited Mario Liverani, The Ancient Near East (London, 2013), p. 143.
p. 19. ‘Now, any king who . . .’, cited Roux, Iraq p. 149.
p. 20. ‘Sargon’s daughter made herself. . .’, et seq, see Paul Kriwaczek, Babylon (London, 2010), pp. 120, 121, 122.
p. 21. ‘In his old age all . . .’, et seq, cited Roux, Iraq, p. 148.
p. 24. ‘stylised borrowing on. . .’, et seq, see Guy Deutscher, Syntactic Change in Akkadian (Oxford, 2000), pp. 20–1.
p. 25. ‘The year when Sargon . . .’, Kriwaczek, Babylon, p. 127.
p. 26. ‘units which would remain . . .’, ibid.
p. 26. ‘bewildered, confused . . .’, cited & et seq, see Roux, Iraq, p. 150.
p. 27. ‘Empires based solely on . . .’, Kriwaczek, Babylon, p. 159.
p. 28. ‘nearly all Palestinian . . .’, Stiebing, Ancient Near East, p. 77.
p. 28. ‘Aerial photographs of . . .’, ibid, p. 78.
p. 28. ‘The First World . . .’, see title Akkad: The First World Empire, ed. Mario Liverani (Padua 1993).
p. 28. ‘construction seemingly going . . .’, Kriwaczek, Babylon, p. 129.
p. 28. ‘In no case is the . . et seq; ironically Liverani’s citations come from p. 2 of his title Akkad: The First World Empire.
p. 29. ‘Up until now civilization . . Kriwaczek, Babylon, p. 119.
p. 30. ‘Herodotus describes the . . see Harriet Crawford, Sumer and the Sumerians (New York, 1993), p. 85.
p. 32. ‘We know that life . . H.G. Wells, A Short History of the World (London, 1965 ed.), p. 62.
p. 33. ‘When you are thinking of . . P.J. O’Rourke, All the Trouble in the World (New York, 1994).
Chapter 2: The Roman Empire
I have made liberal use of the vast literature devoted to this subject. Here are some titles recommended for further reading:
Mary Beard, Confronting the Classics (London, 2013). Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of the Roman Empire (London, 2015).
Luciano Canfora, Julius Caesar: The Life and Times of the People’s Dictator, trans. Hill & Windle (Oakland, 2007).
Philip Freeman, Julius Caesar (London, 2008).
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London, 2010).
Anthony Kamm, The Romans: An Introduction (London, 1995).
Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, trans. Grant (London, 1956).
Chapter 3: The Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates
Recommended further reading:
Jim Al-Khalili, Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science (London, 2010).
André Clot, Harun al-Rashid, trans. John Howe (London, 2005).
Shirley Guthrie, Arab Women in the Middle Ages (London, 2001).
Hugh Kennedy, Caliphate: The History of An Idea (New York, 2016).
Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates (London, 1986).
Jonathan Lyons, The House of Wisdom (London, 2009).
C.W. Previté-Orton, The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. I, Later Roman Empire to the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, 1979).
Chapter 4: The Mongol Empire
Recommended further reading:
The Secret History of the Mongols, trans. Igor de Rachewiltz (Netherlands, 2006).
Christopher Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (New York, 2004).
Carl von Clausewitz, On War.
Peter Jackson, The Mongols and the Islamic World (London, 2017).
Frank McLynn, Genghis Khan: The Man Who Conquered the World (London, 2015).
Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (New York, 2004).
Chapter 5: The Yuan Dynasty
Recommended further reading:
Chan, Hok-lam & W.T. De Barry, Yuan Thought: Chinese Thought and Religion under the Mongols (New York, 1982).
Elizabeth Endicott-West, ‘The Yuan Government and Society’ in Cambridge History of China, Vol. 6.
John D. Langlois, China Under Mongol Rule (Princeton, 1981).
Ann Pauldan, Chronicle of Chinese Emperors (London, 1998).
Chapter 6: The Aztec Empire
Recommended further reading:
Nigel Davies, The Aztecs: A History (London, 1973).
Bernal Diaz, trans. J. Cohen, The Conquest of New Spain (London, 1963).
Miguel Leon-Portilla, trans. J. Davies, Aztec Thought and Culture (Oklahoma, 1978)
Michael Smith, The Aztecs (Oxford, 2012).
Jacques Soustelle, Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest (Stanford, 1961).
Chapter 7: The Ottoman Empire
Recommended further reading:
Roger Crowley, Constantinople: The Last Great Siege 1453 (London, 2005).
Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300–1923 (London, 2005).
Halil Inalcik, An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire (1300–1600) (Cambridge, 1997).
Patrick Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries (London, 1977).
Philip Mansel, Sultans in Splendour: The Last Years of The Ottoman World (London, 1988).
John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium (London, 1998).
Chapter 8: The British Empire
Recommended further reading:
Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire (London, 1987).
Ronald Hyam, Britain’s Imperial Century 1815–1914 (London, 2002).
Jan Morris, Pax Britannica (London, 1968).
Jan Morris, Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress (London, 1973).
Jan Morris, Farewell the Trumpets (London, 1978).
Chapter 9: The Russian Empire
Recommended further reading:
Archie Brown et al, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union (Cambridge, 1982).
George Freeze, Russia: A History (Oxford, 2002).
Robert Service, A History of Twentieth Century Russia (London, 1999).
Hugh Seton-Watson, The Russian Empire 1801–1917 (London, 1967).
Chapter 10: The American Empire
Recommended further reading:
Paul Boyer (ed.), The Oxford Companion to United States History (Oxford, 2001).
Mark C. Canes & John A. Garraty, The American Nation: A History of the United States (New York, 2015).
William E. Leuchtenburg, The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton (New York, 2015).
Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic 1795–1815 (New York, 2009).
Aristide Zolberg, A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America (London, 2006).