"Anthony Pagden tells the story of the great empires of the West, from the days of Alexander the Great and Rome to the fall of Europe's colonial system after World War II.".

"Peoples and Empires explains how Europe's great colonial enterprises exploded across the world at the time and in the manner that they did, connects them in a mosaic of cause and effect, teases out their similarities and significant differences, and follows the waxing and waning tides of their fortunes.

Pagden assesses how Europe made sense of the "New World"; how it integrated slavery into its economic framework and to what ends; and how, again and again, it found new ways of convincing itself that subjecting other peoples to its rule was an act of great generosity and kindness. Finally, he shows how the Age of Empire, at least as traditionally understood, came to an end, leaving conquerors and subjects changed beyond all recognition."--BOOK JACKET.