Exclusive interview with Peter Davidson discussing his book that looks at the history and future of empires using maps
Review by Gabrielle Pantera
“I’ve loved historical atlases since I was a kid,” says Atlas of Empires author Peter Davidson. “Back then I’d happily lose myself for hours in any kind of atlas. But the historical ones that showed where people came from and went to seemed to bring geography to life. The only problem was I never found one where the text pulled me along from map to map.”
“The writing of this book really emerged from an earlier book,” he goes on. “Some years ago I suffered a life-changing injury that removed me from the life I knew. I found myself looking at society from the outside and trying to make sense of what I saw. The result was a book I co-wrote about civilization.”
Great empires rise and fall. Why? Atlas of Empires examines empires from the earliest of the Sumerians and Pharaohs to modern empires such as the USSR and the European Union. Empires came into being because of differences of opinion, religion, government, capitalism, greed and nationalism. Davidson examines how they advance – whether it’s weapons, animals or nothing except a drive for power. With 60 maps, Davidson plots the ebb and flow of the empires. The book predicts the future of empires.
“What seems to happen to the largest empires…the Roman, the British and others…I find particularly interesting,” says Davidson. “They seem unable to avoid gradually disintegrating…nonetheless managing to reinvent themselves in another form. I find it revealing to see how societies widely separated across space and time have worked their way through the same set of solutions in an effort to control ever larger territories and ever more diverse cultures. And to see this process continue into the present, whether or not the term empire is actually used.”
“The first empires depended on irrigation agriculture,” says Davidson. “The horse enabled vastly greater areas to be conquered. The ocean-going ship brought a clash of civilizations and threw a net of interdependence over the globe. Advances in communications, weapons and money have always been game-changers. But perhaps the thing that captivates me most is cultural fusion. That, outside America at least, conquerors have sometimes found themselves so changed by the societies they take over that it becomes unclear who is really in charge.”
For research Davidson looked to books, academic journals, letters and inscriptions, first hand accounts, memoirs, official documents. As a broad introduction to the subject, his aim was to synthesize rather than conduct original research.
“For the maps, I began with comparing maps in other historical atlases,” says Davidson. “But I mostly drew information from various more specialized maps as well as from lists. The shifting coastlines of the ancient Near East in particular involved a good deal of research into environmental change.”
“My first port of call was the library of Birkbeck College, University of London, where I studied and later taught,” says Davidson. “I was also able to get access to a surprising wealth of primary source material through academic and museum websites. More and more is being digitized, from EU reports to Mesopotamian clay tablets.”
Most of Davidson’s writing has been in the form of scripts for films he makes, commentaries for historical documentaries on subjects ranging from World War II to the history of flight. Davidson co-wrote Milestones of Civilization with Linda Blandford, published by New Holland. Atlas of Empires has yet to be optioned for film or television.
Davidson worked for some time as a restorer of antiquities. “The first piece I ever worked on was a 2nd century bodhisattva from what is now Pakistan. It was clearly Buddhist in subject but just as clearly Greek in style, and the society that could have produced such a thing began to fascinate me.”
Davidson doesn’t do social media. He is currently writing a script for a short film about the Order of St John of Jerusalem.
Davidson is based in London. He was born in Viborg, Denmark.
Atlas of Empires: The World’s Great Powers from Ancient Times to Today by Peter Davidson. Trade Paperback. 240 pages. Publisher: CompanionHouse Books. March 6, 2018. Language: English. ISBN-13: 978-1620082874 $19.99
