Excelente resenha escrita por John Payne na Reason de dois livros sobre impérios: The Rule of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall, by Timothy H. Parsons, Oxford University Press; Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600–1900, by Stephen R. Bown, Thomas Dunne Books. Aprendemos que impérios são inerentemente instáveis: Both books succeed in showing the small, concentrated benefits that empires bestow on a ruling class and the extraordinary burdens they impose on everyone else. The security and prosperity allegedly offered by empire is an illusion, and those societies that pursue it—even with the best of intentions—will ultimately receive neither. It’s a lesson that could serve Americans well.
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