Books & ideas

The Origin of Byzantine Studies

Mathieu Couderc — 2026-06-02T08:12:22Z

It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that Byzantine studies acquired their official scientific and academic status, after a long process involving rigorous selection of the documents that have survived to the present day.

Airs of empire

Geneviève Bührer-Thierry — 2025-05-08T07:30:00Z

The Frankish kingdom that emerged between the sixth and eighth centuries promoted political and religious diversity, before the Carolingians brought this pragmatism to an end. Did an empire exist in Europe between Rome and Charlemagne?

The Holy Roman Empire and colonization

Gabriel Redon — 2025-04-24T08:30:00Z

What role did the Holy Roman Empire play in the first colonial conquests of the early modern period? What was the role of its princes, institutions, diplomacy, sailors, and merchants?

The Advent of the Secularocene

Jean Baubérot — 2024-04-30T06:30:04Z

Secularisation is often presented as a Western model that was exported during decolonisation; but according to M. A. Meziane, it was in fact spread by colonialism itself as an instrument of domination.

Empress Eugénie: France's First Lady

Murielle Gaude-Ferragu — 2023-02-28T08:30:00Z

Despite the black legend that surrounds her name, the Empress Eugénie, Napoleon III's wife, was the embodiment of maternity and Christian virtues, even as she played a political and diplomatic role.

Phantom Empire

Juliette Tran — 2021-09-22T06:30:00Z

At the crossroads of ethnohistory, imperial history and U.S. history, Hämäläinen's latest book sheds a new light on the Lakota people, arguing that they established a thriving nomadic empire in the heart of America, despite the growing presence of Europeans.

The Empire of Plants

Pierre Nobi — 2018-09-27T07:00:00Z

Can one write a history of colonization through plants? This is the challenge taken up by Samir Boumediene in a book devoted to the modern-age production of botanical knowledge on both sides of the Atlantic.

Scotland: Nation, Enlightenment and Empire

Clarisse Godard Desmarest — 2018-09-13T07:00:00Z

A new exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh explores the changes undergone in Scotland in the fields of science, technology and literature over a century (1760-1860). It also offers a nuanced narrative of Scotland's role in the British Empire.

What Nero Says about Us

Laurie Lefebvre — 2017-11-16T08:00:00Z

“Parricide”, “tyrant”, “monster”: it would be an understatement to say that the last Julio-Claudian emperor is not highly regarded. Making use of some impressive documents, Donatien Grau analyses the image of the hated emperor from the first century AD to the present day. The story of Nero reads like a history of the West.

Augustus: The Eternal Emperor

Sarah Rey — 2016-07-07T06:00:00Z

Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire in 27 BC, was a thoroughly ambiguous man: At once a republican and an autocrat, a conqueror and a peacemaker, he was the inventor of a tradition who governed like a sphinx. A biography has just come out that emphasizes the topicality of his reign.