Emperors : A History with Dominic Lieven

For millennia much of the world was ruled by emperors: a handful of individuals claimed no limit to the lands they could rule over and no limit to their authority. They operated beyond normal human constraint and indeed often claimed a superhuman or divine authority. In practice they ran the gamut from being some of the most remarkable individuals to ever live, to being some of the worst and least remarkable.

In this fascinating online event, acclaimed historian and Wolfson History Prize-winner Dominic Lieven draws from his latest book In the Shadow of the Gods to discuss this extraordinary phenomenon. From great emperors of antiquity, caliphs and warrior-emperors of the steppe to Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman, Mughal and Chinese emperors. The entire breadth of extreme human behaviour is here - from warlords to patrons of the arts, from political genius to feeble incapacity and pathological violence.

About the Speaker...

Dominic Lieven is an Honorary Fellow and an Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, a Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His Russia Against Napoleon won the Wolfson History Prize (UK) and the Prix Napoléon (France). Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia won the Pushkin House Prize (UK), the Valdai Club Prize (Russia) and the Ambassador of the New Europe Prize (Poland).

*Ticket holders will have access to the event for 7 days*