Empires Apart: America and Russia from the Vikings to Iraq [Paperback]

I have read Empires Apart with great enjoyment. Brian Landers has written a piercing account of American history from its colonial beginnings to its present role as an unacknowledged empire that bestrides the world. Concerned as he is to expose the myths that nations create about themselves, he bases his analysis upon a revealing comparison of American and Russian expansion through the centuries. This technique forces the observer to recognise similarities, identify differences and question why both similarities and differences exist. In a sense, then, the reader gets two books for the price of one, Russian history as well as American. --Andreas Whittam Smith

A most enjoyable and intelligent book. Brian Landers constructs a tightly argued analysis, and never loses a beguiling narrative drive. --Tim Waterstone

Simply staggering in vision, depth, development of ideas and detailed research. And it's also very readable and approachable, The analysis along the way is very revealing and a challenge to accepted thinking. --Sir Roger Martin

The American road to Baghdad started when the first English settlers landed in Virgina determined to impose their values on everyone they encountered. Simultaneously, the first Russians crossed the Urals and the two empires that would dominate the twentieth century were born. 'Empires Apart' covers the history of the Americans and Russians from the Vikings to the present day. It shows the two empires developed in parallel as they expanded to the Pacific and launched wars against the nations around them. They both developed an imperial 'ideology' that was central to the way they perceived themselves. Then, in the period between the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War, the American ideology changed and the lust for new territory to conquer largely disappeared. It is argued that what caused this change was the advent of Big Business which set out to conquer the world in a different way.Soon after, the ideology of the Russian Empire also changed with the advent of Communism. The key argument of this book is that these changes did not alter the core imperial values of either nation; both Russians and Americans continued to believe that their manifest destiny was to impose their will on others. Corporatist and Communist imperialism changed only the mechanics of Empire. Both nations have shown that they are still willing to use military force and clandestine intrigue to enforce imperial control. In order to support these arguments, it is necessary to strip away many of the preconceptions of popular history and this book uses numerous anecdotes to illustrate events as they really happened. The most pervasive preconception is that America has never been an 'imperial' power, by recounting the history of the two nations alongside each other this preconception is decisively dissolved. The Iraq War has led to widespread condemnation of American foreign policy - often coupled with the assertion that in invading Iraq the United States has abandoned the principles upon which its greatness is based. At the same time, critics have been derided for their crude anti-Americanism. The United States, it is claimed, has been throughout its history a selfless defender of democracy, in sharp contrast to tyrannies elsewhere, The Cold War victory over Russia is used to remind us that it was the US that saved the world from the claws of the 'Evil Empire'. 'Empires Apart' is a well argued balanced addition - correction, even to these arguments. The author contends that far from the Iraq War being an aberration, America's road to Baghdad started when the first Englishman landed on Roanoke Island, musket in hand. He shows how Americans conquered their way across a continent to the Pacific and beyond so that by the end of the Spanish-American War they controlled an empire stretching from Cuba to Hawaii and the Philippines. In this, he maintains there are exact parallels with Russia - at the same time that the English were crossing the Atlantic, Russians were crossing the Urals and conquering their way to the Pacific. Brian Landers establishes that the difference between the American and Russian Empires is that by the end of the nineteenth century, American settlers conquering new territories were replaced by American corporations conquering new markets - but still with US marine support. In 'Empires Apart' he uncovers the real story behind the growth of the American Empire from the first 9/11 style terrorist attacks launched against the natives by the early Puritans, to the disastrous Polar Bear Expedition against the Bolsheviks and the 'regime changes' of the twentieth century. Uniquely, Landers shows how the broad sweep of American history follows a consistent path from the first settlers to the present day and by comparing this with Russia's path demonstrates the true nature of America's global ambitions