The creation and dissolution of empires has been a constant feature of human history from ancient times through the present day. Establishing new identities and

In this imaginative book, Maya Jasanoff uncovers the extraordinary stories of collectors who lived on the frontiers of the British Empire in India and Egypt, tr

In the early fifteenth century, when Romans discovered ancient marble sculptures and inscriptions in the ruins, they often melted them into mortar. A hundred ye

Between 1777 and 1816, botanical expeditions crisscrossed the vast Spanish empire in an ambitious project to survey the flora of much of the Americas, the Carib

Winner of the Leo Gershoy Award Winner of the Louis Gottschalk Prize A Times Book of the Week When the British Museum opened its doors in 1759, it was the first