I picked up this book on a random stroll through the library. I found the title interesting and the cover pretty good, so I thought of giving it a try. This book is basically a collection of essays written on different topics. Some are directly related to the title like "Is Indian Civilization a Myth" and "How India met Vasco", others weren't related at all, like "Marquez, Hemmingway, and Cult of Power" or " An Ambiguous Parisian". Seems like a random collection of essays in no particular order.
I found his essay "What, Exactly, is an Empire?" a bit pedantic. It is a classic case of logic defeating its own purpose. Here is the thing, irrespective of any definition of Empire, you are bound to ignore or include some elements that are questionable according to other definitions of Empire. One should not dismiss works on analyzing Empires because they adopted a specific definition. More frustratingly, Sanjay does not even provide an alternative definition of Empire that is strictly more encompassing. Alternatively, if the analysis is not holistic, one can point out those flaws. Sanjay does not do that either. He goes on a long winded argument of why no definition of Empire is good. So what? What am I supposed to learn from that?
Sanjay is indeed very articulate and you can see the polished nature of writings in these essays. I would recommend this book, just for the English, if not for anything else. Other than that, I am disappointed that the title is not justified at all.
I found his essay "What, Exactly, is an Empire?" a bit pedantic. It is a classic case of logic defeating its own purpose. Here is the thing, irrespective of any definition of Empire, you are bound to ignore or include some elements that are questionable according to other definitions of Empire. One should not dismiss works on analyzing Empires because they adopted a specific definition. More frustratingly, Sanjay does not even provide an alternative definition of Empire that is strictly more encompassing. Alternatively, if the analysis is not holistic, one can point out those flaws. Sanjay does not do that either. He goes on a long winded argument of why no definition of Empire is good. So what? What am I supposed to learn from that?
Sanjay is indeed very articulate and you can see the polished nature of writings in these essays. I would recommend this book, just for the English, if not for anything else. Other than that, I am disappointed that the title is not justified at all.
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