Atlantic pre-empts world rights in study of 'great imperial hangover'

Atlantic Books has pre-empted world rights to The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Shaped Our World by Samir Puri, an international relations lecturer at the War Studies Department of Kings College, London. Editorial director Mike Harpley bought the rights via Darryl Samaraweera at Artellus.

The publisher summarises the book thus: "For the first time in millennia we live in a world without formal empires. But that doesn’t mean we don’t feel their presence rumbling through history. In this ground-breaking exploration of global politics, Samir Puri examines how the world’s empires are still shaping the thorniest issues we face today. From Russia’s incursions in the Ukraine to Brexit; from Trump’s ‘America-first policy’ to Modi’s populism in India, Puri explains how legacies of empires all over the world exert a powerful impact in terms of security, foreign policy, inequality and global commerce."

Harpley said: "Samir’s book is ambitious and incredibly impressive, combining gripping history, on-the-ground observation, and astute analysis. As with the best writing in the genre, when reading the proposal, I found myself revising many assumptions about how the world works. As a guide for understanding today’s tumultuous times, it is essential reading."

The Great Imperial Hangover will be published in hardback, trade paperback, and e-book in June 2020.

The author is also adjunct professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Research Fellow at RAND.