Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Mahatma Gandhi appear in this history of revolutionary struggles. But the main characters are lesser-known figures.

The essays in “Bland Fanatics” trace today’s crises to a long history of violent colonial oppression.

The story of the country’s rise to dominance shows how it can step back.

How a Republican presidential candidate became a leading critic of empire

The incoherence of the British Empire