In the Shadow of the Gods: The Emperor in World History

by Dominic Lieven

From the acclaimed Wolfson Prize-winning author, a dazzling history of the world's emperorsFor millennia much of the world was ruled by a handful of individuals claimed no limit to the lands they could rule over and no limit to their authority. They operated beyond normal human constraint and indeed often claimed a superhuman or divine authority. In practice they ran the gamut from being some of the most remarkable men who ever lived, to being some of the worst and least remarkable.Dominic Lieven's marvellous new book, In the Shadow of the Gods , is the first to grapple seriously with this extraordinary phenomenon. Across the world peoples, willingly or unwillingly, fell into orbit around figures who reshaped or destroyed entire societies, imposed religions and invaded rivals. Lieven describes the anatomy of imperial monarchy and the principles by which it functioned. He compares the great emperors of antiquity, the caliphs and the warrior-emperors of the steppe before he turns to the Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman, Mughal and Chinese emperors, packing the book with extraordinary stories, astute observations and a sense of both delight and horror at these individuals' antics. The entire breadth of extreme human behaviour is here - from warlords to patrons of the arts, from political genius to feeble incapacity and pathological violence.As one of the great experts both on empires and on Russian history, Lieven is brilliantly qualified to write a book that brings to life a system of rule that dominated most of human history, as well as some of history's grandest and most dismaying figures.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World History, Politics, Biography, Ancient History, Audiobook

528 pages, Paperback

Published May 4, 2023

About the author

Dominic Lieven is Professor of Russian studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Fellow of the British Academy and of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Reviews

[Boudewijn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Throughout world history, emperors have held immense power and influence over their subjects, and their reigns have often been marked by great achievements and profound cultural and political developments. In this book, Dominic Lieven describes the impact these emperors had on religion, diplomacy, government and societies as a whole. From emperors in antiquity to the Habsburg, Ottoman, Mughal and Chinese emperors to the final empires of Russia and France, Lieven explores the anatomy of the empires and the way they functioned.

The author discusses the origins of the concept of the emperor and how it evolved over time in different regions of the world. He also examines the ways in which emperors used religion, ideology, and symbolism to legitimize their power and authority and how their reigns impacted their societies and cultures.

I had hoped to get an intricate overview of all these factors, but unfortunately the book, with the exception of the introduction and afterword, basically is a list of biographies of the various emperors. Interesting, don't get me wrong, but too general for anyone with at least a basic understanding of the way empires were governed.

[Jonathon McKenney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly one of the top history books I’ve read in a long time. It compared to Simon Sebag Montefiore’s “The Romanovs” in its depth and breadth, AND on a subject I am fascinated by. Each chapter left me wanting more, in the best way possible. It was an example of a rare book I read the footnotes. So happy we got this in my library and what a fun read.

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read after it was reviewed in The Economist. Seemed like their review was only about the epilogue which is fine, but the actual boom was quite different.

It’s a long, detailed, run down of major empires throughout world history (particularly in Europe, the Middle East, South, Central, and East Asia) from Mesopotamia through World War II. Definitely filled in some gaps for me and was more holistic than most world history books.

I’m not sure whether it was me or the author, but some chapters seemed heavy on facts and light on analysis making me wonder whether the author was providing a semi-rote overview of the empire without as much prior knowledge themselves. Enjoyable enough and certainly substantial.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject matter of this book was really fascinating and I enjoyed the comparative history of world empires immensely. However, this definitely reads more like an academic history book than a popular history book and the language can be quite dry (pro tip: refresh your memory of the definitions of works like "polity"). Lieven makes some attempts to relate the personalities and experiences of historical emperors with modern-day CEOS, political leaders, etc., but it doesn't always succeed. Still, I especially enjoyed the (admittedly short and probably quite shallow) overviews of the major Chinese dynasties.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

His_Story

This book is a remarkable piece of historical research.
The author covers a vast array of world history, from ancient to modern times, and provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of the role of the emperor in shaping world events.

While the book is lengthy, it is filled with detailed insights that make for a fascinating read.

Lieven's analysis of political conflicts and predictions for the future is particularly noteworthy (towards the end of the book). His predictions are insightful and provide a unique perspective on the ongoing struggles and challenges faced by world leaders.
However, the book can be dense and may not be for everyone.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in history or politics.

Lieven's thorough research and analysis make for a valuable contribution to the field, and while it may not be a light read, it is certainly an informative one.

3.0/5

[Kumail Akbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The works Dominic Lieven is most renowned for, and the ones that I have read written by him tend to be about Russian history. So it seemed more than a little interesting that he would write a book about the place of emperors in human history. Russian history is not short of noble families and Caesars (who they pronounced as Tsars), so his perspective was bound to be interesting at the very least, even if the books ambitious scale seemed a little overwhelming at first. Mammoth histories of such types can vary between those written with very little depth (such as Susan Baeur’s works) or be written to serve a clear ideological purpose (your typical ‘people’s history’ narratives), or very occasionally be spectacular but have a clear time period that they focus on (such as After Tamerlane by John Darwin). In most of these cases though, the works can tend to be polarized between those that offer a lot of engaging content and narrative, and those that make you think and rethink things. This incredible work however manages to do both.

Professor Lieven leverages his expert knowledge of Russian history and its proximate empires, which helps to remove (or at the very least) reduce a very western euro centric view of sweeping global histories. He also writes extensively about empires and emperors from histories most readers might have some awareness of, say of ancient Persia, Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt and Rome but also of histories people are much less aware of, such as Ottoman, Mughal, and various Chinese emperors and their dynasties. While better known individuals such as Augustus, Constantine, and Akbar obviously get talked about; there are even outstanding figures that I, given my Pakistani heritage was aware of, but others might not, such as the Empress Nur Jehan of the Mughal Empire, as well as names and figures even I with my obsessive interest in broad sweeping histories know nothing about, such as Tewodros of Ethiopia.

But as I stated, this book is not just a compendium of who's who. This is not a Wikipedia list, nor an autistic Reddit Twitter deep dive on individuals. Professor Leiven set out to change the readers conception of what emperors have been through history, how they were molded by history not just as individuals but as an idea or an institution, and how they ended up changing history themselves. The word emperor tends to summon a monolithic notion of an absolutist individual who brokers no dissent. However, this works shows quite clearly how the concept of imperial rule varied across time and space, across geographies and cultures. More importantly it also showed how emperors and empires helped build religions as a means of legitimizing power and maintaining control, helping spread the same religions whilst forcing their evolution, and in many cases then finding their own (or their descendant’s) empires facing conflict and decline once the evolved religions and their social powers took a life of their own.

The book is written in lucid language, making it highly readable for general audiences. If you wish to take a break from dense reading and wish to read something that is light, but which still manages to tickle your grey matter, you could not do with a better one.

Rating 5 of 5, what else.

[Ron Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a moderately interesting read, especially on the theme of geopolitics, but it wasn’t what I expected or hoped for. One of the history books I enjoyed best in the last few years because it brought such an interesting new lens to history, was Peter Frankopan’s (2017) The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.

I had hoped, based on a review (https://tinyurl.com/497fwbmj) and from scanning the cover, that Lieven’s book might yield a similar broad interpretative take on global historic trends, but it doesn’t. The best part of the book, in this regard, is the short Afterword (read that in the bookstore and save yourself $47).

Most of the book simply ends up being a long string of potted histories of emperors (and a few empresses) and their empires. Plainly this can be interesting when he writes about reigns you are unfamiliar with, but it will be highly unenlightening for reigns that you know.

When Lieven does give examples of principles that generalize to other times and places, they are so generic as to be trite, along the lines of “diplomacy is important.” I can’t recommend this book unless you know very little about the history of various emperors and empires and, even then, I don’t believe you will learn much about their overall role in shaping world history.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The moon crescent with an inner star, to this day the emblem of Islam, was ever-present in late Sasanian throne buildings and was soon adopted by Arab conquerors." (166)

"If the territories ruled by Charles are not defined as an empire, then no empire ever existed in history." (181)

"Dom Pedro II ought to have been mad or at the very least ineffective. On his father's side his genes were Braganza and Bourbon. His mother was the daughter of the Hapsburg emperor. He had no more great-great-grandparents than Charles V." (383)

[Mariya T (msbookworld) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a very thorough analysis of empires from around the world. As I read this book I found that I was looking at some familiar historical figures in a new light and also learning about new ones. I also enjoyed how the author connected the empires of the past to some of our present day "empires". Overall, a very informative and engaging read.

[James Junke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has used a lifetime of scholarship to produce a succinct, fascinating and readable history of emperors. And they are still at it in various guises.

[Sandeep Sudhakaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A walk through of emperors and empires through history and the circumstances that molded them

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lieven's In the Shadow of the Gods chronicles the rise and fall of various empires across the globe, spending a considerable amount of time on the various Chinese Empires, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Romanovs, and the Hapsburgs. Starting out by defining what he considers an empire and emperor and touching on the proto-empires this book is massive in scope and covers incredible amounts of time and is an impressive undertaking. Lieven's writing strikes a good balance between academic writing style and popular writing style but definitely leans more toward academic which led to the book dragging in spots, especially if you're unfamiliar with the history of the empire he's discussing, although there is a good amount of background on the history and development of each empire. Lieven also gives a good amount of time to the interactions between these empires at different times and how they each shaped the modern world. While I can see this being a great reference on the history of empire, it will most likely not appeal to the casual reader. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin/Viking for the free e-book.

[Sujith Ravindran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read Dominic Lieven's In the Shadow of the Gods. This book provides a captivating exploration of ereditary imperial monarchs, ranging from the illustrious reigns of Alexander the Great, Caesar, and Constantine, to the grandeur of the Ashoka, Han, Song, and Tang dynasties. The narrative spans through the eras of Chinggis Khan, the Abassid dynasty, Charles V, Phillips II, Suleiman the Magnificent, Napoleon, the Mughals, Ming and Qing dynasties, Romanovs, Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, Leopold-I, Frederick-II, Queen Victoria, Emperor Hirohito, and many others.

Central to their rule was the assertion of divine authority, a theme explored deeply in Lieven's work alongside geopolitics, empire, sovereignty, and leadership. Though imperial monarchies have become scarce, the mindset of contemporary leaders often echoes that of their predecessors. Despite remarkable technological advancements, the essence of human nature remains unchanged—selfish and territorial. This reflection prompts questions about the stagnation of human evolution. Should present-day leaders falter in confronting new challenges, the aspirations of humanity seem destined to falter alongside them.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love In the Shadow of the Gods, as it is clearly a passion project for Mr. Lieven, whom I hold in the highest regard. And the idea is fascinating - covering the history of empires by reviewing the characteristics of emperors. I immensely enjoyed the worldwide scale of the selected subjects and the detail provided, clearly the result of extensive research.

That said, I had to give the book three stars in the end. I knocked off one because I felt the book tilted in the wrong direction - too much time spent in very early periods (ancient Middle East, Persia, early Chinese) where the material was likely more challenging to come by or verify, and too little on more modern empires (Hapsburgs, Hohenzollerns, Hanover/Saxe-Coburgs, etc.). A second star was removed because, several times, shifting to first person ("I found this...I saw that") pulled me out of the narrative.

Still, I highly recommend this book as a worthy addition to any library.

[Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the massive scope of the book, similarities in the lives/works of emperors in Eurasian history from antiquity to 1945, there is little expectation that Lieven will delve too deeply in anyone of them. Apart from including a few stories of the personal lives of many of these men, and a few women, the work reads mostly as an overview, if fragmentary and unbalanced, of Eurasian history in general. The few commonalities that Lieven does find, the problems of succession, the limits imposed by bureaucracy and temperament, the differences in dynastic and imperial priorities, are not enough to feel like the book contributes much that is new or interesting. A reader who enjoys history will certainly find stories to enjoy in this work, but any reader looking for more than an overview of general history will find little to justify reading it.  

[Dropbear123 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 rounding up for goodreads

It was fine. It's an overview of various emperors throughout history and how they dealt with issues like succession, raising heirs, managing the aristocracy/societal elites (keeping them strong enough to be useful but loyal and weak enough to not risk a coup), the role of advisors and wives/concubines etc. The various emperor's personalities are also looked at to see how much they mattered for their empires.

3.5 is a fairly low rating so my reasoning is

(1) The writing just didn't grab me. I wasn't excited to continue reading like I would be with a better book. Maybe this is down to this being a topic with lots of names (the emperors, heirs, wives, lovers,

[TalviLinna]

I think I finished this, but I really don't remember. Libby either won't let me or doesn't have my reading history for this book. I have the print book in my hands, and flipping through it, I don't remember the end, but I also don't remember the parts I know I read. So...???
I'm just going to mark it read, because it isn't among the books that keep cycling through my Libby holds, so I must have finished it.
Overall, I liked it and found it informative. Sometimes it got to be a little "and then his son did this, and his cousin did this..." which was kind of tedious, but with the audiobook it was easy to just let those parts go by.

[Samuel Clarkbourne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining and interesting book about emperors throughout world history. I don't usually pay attention to the inner lives of those figures, so it made for a refreshingly different read.

That being said, the book doesn't achieve what it set out to. In the introduction, we are led to believe that the book would do two things: 1) highlight key themes that affected emperors through history and 2) make a case for the emperor as an important actor in society, whose decisions did have a large impact on events.

In reality, the book reads more like a string of biographies with the odd insight dotted around. It doesn't engage with wider debates about the themes it mentions, nor does it provide much of a metanarrative other than in the epilogue. Other reviews have pointed this out a lot.

If I could I would have given it a 3.5. It is an enjoyable read, but it is standard history writing and not necessarily the grand theoretical piece you might expect going in.

I rounded up to 4 because I refuse to give something I enjoyed less than that.

[Sophie Els · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up in August, made it about halfway through, gave up on it, then picked it up again because I'm 8 books behind my reading goal (lol). This almost feels stream of consciousness which would be extremely impressive considering the sheer amount of information contained within each paragraph. Overall, thought this was informative and thought-provoking, and gave me a new appreciation for just how fundamentally human history has been shaped by our "divine" rulers.

"Like a virus, war has the horrible habit of reinventing itself in order to survive."

[David Cheshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stunning book. The author says it reflects 50 years of reading and research and it shows. It is the definitive study of what empire was, how it worked and what it meant to be an emperor. He reveals the geopolitics, the ideology, the dynastic-family-monarchy dimension and the personal side which seldom get a look in. It's a lonely role. The comparisons with modern CEO's are apt. It's sweep and depth are amazing. Historical scholarship at its height.

[Abigail Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and well researched, this survey of empires and dynasties is a great exploration of near-world-, world-, and super-powers on 2x speed. Although this book is quite long, each chapter is a quick jog through a different dynasty, in order by occurrence. It would be easy to read any chapter a la carte, as a good way to become generally familiar with the golden era of different countries.

[Jonathan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed getting a detailed look at how historical governments impacted history as I knew it already, especially the last few chapters. Wish the author hadn’t felt the need to make the epilogue a personal political rant.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s s summary text and while it’s not bad per se, I definitely felt like nothing was talked about to the level it should. Just hundreds of pages of little summaries of empire 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Mary Ann van Hartesveldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this from the library of the Viking Sky on a recent cruise and found it fascinating. The subject is empires. From Babylon to the Hapsburgs Lieven explores what empires have in common.

[Paul Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history book with many learnings. Key-take away: succession is a bitch

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good coverage in the topic - but I think the author’s main thesis is better covered in his various talks about the book rather than the book itself.

[Nobody]

What makes this book uninteresting is its premise - the author seems to be under the impression that the emperors make the empires. He probably didn’t care much about Mary Beard’s lesson: it’s the empires that create the emperors.