A conversation with Thomas Barfield about a distinctive category of empires that he has proposed in a new book, Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History. These are empire that derive a significant part of their revenues or symbolic capital not from lands that they rule directly but by extorting them from other empires, from control over trade routes, or from the ruins of previous states. During its long history, Romanía dealt with a number of these “exogenous” empires, including the Huns, Venetians, and Rus’.
Thomas Barfield is Professor and Chairman of the Anthropology Department at Boston University. His research focuses on the history of Afghanistan. His new book is Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History, published by Princeton University Press.
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Byzantium & Friends is hosted by Anthony Kaldellis, a Professor at the University of Chicago. You can follow him on his personal website. You can listen to more episodes of Byzantium & Friends through Podbean, Spotify or Apple Podcasts
A conversation with Thomas Barfield about a distinctive category of empires that he has proposed in a new book, Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History. These are empire that derive a significant part of their revenues or symbolic capital not from lands that they rule directly but by extorting them from other empires, from control over trade routes, or from the ruins of previous states. During its long history, Romanía dealt with a number of these “exogenous” empires, including the Huns, Venetians, and Rus’.
Thomas Barfield is Professor and Chairman of the Anthropology Department at Boston University. His research focuses on the history of Afghanistan. His new book is Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History, published by Princeton University Press.
Byzantium & Friends is hosted by Anthony Kaldellis, a Professor at the University of Chicago. You can follow him on his personal website. You can listen to more episodes of Byzantium & Friends through Podbean, Spotify or Apple Podcasts
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