Download or read book The Burdens of Empire written by Anthony Pagden and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-16 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The entire course of modern Western history has been shaped by the rise and fall of the great European empires. The Burdens of Empire examines different aspects of this long history, focusing on how political theorists, jurists, historians and others sought to explain what an empire is and to justify its very existence.