What do you think?
Rate this book
Data Empire: The Power of Information to Organize, Control, and Dominate
From clay tablets to the algorithmic state, a groundbreaking new lens on human history arguing that information has always been the seed of power. Perfect for readers of Nexus and The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.
Historians have pointed to guns, germs, steel, religion, agriculture, and the female body as the engines of human history. But what do they all have in common?
Every human approach to power has involved collecting data—from tracking where and how long animals live to sharpen the hunt, to classifying our fellow humans in order to stratify, isolate, and subjugate them. Recording and mastering data has always been the foundation of rule—and we are living through it now, too.
In Data Empire, Roopika Risam uncovers the hidden history of data as a force that has shaped civilizations. From ancient cave markings and knotted strings to colonial censuses and modern digital surveillance, Risam shows how data has always been a means of control. Empire may have made use of weapons or ships, but it was built on information.
Both a sweeping history and a sharp critique, Data Empire is a call to recognize the power data has always held, and to imagine what resistance looks like in an age defined by it. The story of empire is the story of data—and knowing its past is the first step to breaking its grip on the future.
Historians have pointed to guns, germs, steel, religion, agriculture, and the female body as the engines of human history. But what do they all have in common?
Every human approach to power has involved collecting data—from tracking where and how long animals live to sharpen the hunt, to classifying our fellow humans in order to stratify, isolate, and subjugate them. Recording and mastering data has always been the foundation of rule—and we are living through it now, too.
In Data Empire, Roopika Risam uncovers the hidden history of data as a force that has shaped civilizations. From ancient cave markings and knotted strings to colonial censuses and modern digital surveillance, Risam shows how data has always been a means of control. Empire may have made use of weapons or ships, but it was built on information.
Both a sweeping history and a sharp critique, Data Empire is a call to recognize the power data has always held, and to imagine what resistance looks like in an age defined by it. The story of empire is the story of data—and knowing its past is the first step to breaking its grip on the future.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published July 9, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Roopika Risam’s Data Empire is an absolute tour de force that delivers a sweeping, grand history of data, masterfully charting our relationship with information from the dawn of humanity to the digital age. Risam takes readers on an unforgettable voyage through time, beginning when Homo sapiens first branched off from our primate relatives and utilized art as an early form of information storage. She seamlessly transitions into the practical accountancy of early Sumeria and the intricate quipus (knotted cords) of Peru. Right from these ancient origins, Risam brilliantly uncovers the dark thread connecting information to authority. She notes that the moment priests began carrying the ledgers, they became masters of the accounts—and, crucially, the keepers of power.
The narrative maintains its breath-taking momentum as it moves through the alphabetic revolution across the globe and examines the rise of libraries as vital sites of knowledge storage and synthesis. Risam’s historical sharp-sightedness shines as she analyzes pivotal moments of systemic control: from the Roman Emperor Constantine leveraging information to distinguish heresy from accepted dogma, to the Abbasid Caliphate collecting and synthesizing global knowledge, and the Norman kings cementing absolute rule through the sheer administrative weight of the Domesday Book. Central to her argument is the Age of Empires, where colonial bookkeeping reduced vibrant societies to mere circuits of "credit and extraction." Risam powerfully demonstrates how data inherently strips away humanity, reducing complex individuals down to faceless statistics.
As the book approaches modern times, Risam explores how this historical control of the ledger translates into the staggering, near-monopolistic power held by today's tech elite. She does a magnificent job exposing the acute dangers of data ownership in both public and private hands when a human being no longer counts as a person, but rather as a statistic or a revenue-generating unit. Her reasoning is profoundly insightful, proving that even seemingly benign structures—like the Dewey Decimal Classification system—are deeply reflective of their inventor’s subjective worldview and can never truly be deemed objective. This builds toward a gripping critique of our current era, highlighting the dominant, troubling roles played by social media and AI titans like Meta and Alphabet, with a particularly chilling look at Palantir’s growing influence in global affairs.
Ultimately, Data Empire is not merely a warning; it concludes beautifully with a profoundly hopeful and emancipatory final chapter on what the world could look like if we were to reclaim control and ownership of our data. For enthusiasts of Yuval Noah Harari’s sweeping timelines, Peter Frankopan’s geopolitical networks, and Shoshana Zuboff’s critiques of surveillance capitalism, this book is an essential, mesmerizing addition to the canon. Risam has written an extraordinary, intellectually rigorous masterpiece—and it is a book I will definitely be returning to for years to come.
#DataEmpire #NetGalley
Roopika Risam’s Data Empire is an absolute tour de force that delivers a sweeping, grand history of data, masterfully charting our relationship with information from the dawn of humanity to the digital age. Risam takes readers on an unforgettable voyage through time, beginning when Homo sapiens first branched off from our primate relatives and utilized art as an early form of information storage. She seamlessly transitions into the practical accountancy of early Sumeria and the intricate quipus (knotted cords) of Peru. Right from these ancient origins, Risam brilliantly uncovers the dark thread connecting information to authority. She notes that the moment priests began carrying the ledgers, they became masters of the accounts—and, crucially, the keepers of power.
The narrative maintains its breath-taking momentum as it moves through the alphabetic revolution across the globe and examines the rise of libraries as vital sites of knowledge storage and synthesis. Risam’s historical sharp-sightedness shines as she analyzes pivotal moments of systemic control: from the Roman Emperor Constantine leveraging information to distinguish heresy from accepted dogma, to the Abbasid Caliphate collecting and synthesizing global knowledge, and the Norman kings cementing absolute rule through the sheer administrative weight of the Domesday Book. Central to her argument is the Age of Empires, where colonial bookkeeping reduced vibrant societies to mere circuits of "credit and extraction." Risam powerfully demonstrates how data inherently strips away humanity, reducing complex individuals down to faceless statistics.
As the book approaches modern times, Risam explores how this historical control of the ledger translates into the staggering, near-monopolistic power held by today's tech elite. She does a magnificent job exposing the acute dangers of data ownership in both public and private hands when a human being no longer counts as a person, but rather as a statistic or a revenue-generating unit. Her reasoning is profoundly insightful, proving that even seemingly benign structures—like the Dewey Decimal Classification system—are deeply reflective of their inventor’s subjective worldview and can never truly be deemed objective. This builds toward a gripping critique of our current era, highlighting the dominant, troubling roles played by social media and AI titans like Meta and Alphabet, with a particularly chilling look at Palantir’s growing influence in global affairs.
Ultimately, Data Empire is not merely a warning; it concludes beautifully with a profoundly hopeful and emancipatory final chapter on what the world could look like if we were to reclaim control and ownership of our data. For enthusiasts of Yuval Noah Harari’s sweeping timelines, Peter Frankopan’s geopolitical networks, and Shoshana Zuboff’s critiques of surveillance capitalism, this book is an essential, mesmerizing addition to the canon. Risam has written an extraordinary, intellectually rigorous masterpiece—and it is a book I will definitely be returning to for years to come.
#DataEmpire #NetGalley
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
We tend to think that the analysis of data is a modern thing. From algorithms, targeted advertising and suggestions to buy.
The use of data, collection and analysis goes back centuries.
The history of how and why data was collected. How empire's expanded and fell.
An interesting and informative book that will make you think.
The use of data, collection and analysis goes back centuries.
The history of how and why data was collected. How empire's expanded and fell.
An interesting and informative book that will make you think.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews