Encyclopedia of the Literature of Empire

“Empire” is defined in this encyclopaedia as the “dominion of one nation over others”. Through various eras, both vanquishers and vanquished have produced a huge body of literature informed by their experiences and attitudes towards the empire to which they belonged. This encyclopaedia attempts to collate this mass of information, from many different regions and centuries.

The encyclopaedia covers all empires from the early pre‐Christian eastern empires of Persia and Syria, the Ottoman empire, the Chinese dynasties, Napoleonic and Holy Roman empires up until the last days of the British, Spanish, South African and Nazi empires which dissolved during the...