In 1807, at the height of the Napoleonic wars, the Portuguese prince regent Dom João made an extraordinary decision. Although horrified by the idea of sea trav

This riveting "biography of a nobody" offers a rare view of empire from the bottom up and a glimpse of the making of modern China. Robert Bickers mines the lett

How women figured in the expansion of the national body of the Japanese empire

In a time of terror for Europe’s monarchs—imprisoned, exiled, executed—Napoleon’s army marched toward Lisbon. Cornered, Prince Regent João had to make

Claude Lévi-Strauss, the 'father of modern anthropology' and author of the classic Tristes tropiques, was one of the most influential intellectuals of the seco