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DAY OF EMPIRE

“Amy Chua smartly condenses the complex histories of the Persian, Mughal, Dutch, and other empires into an irresistible argument: that empires expand through toleration and contract through closed-mindedness. As with any shrewd and elaborate argument, the getting there is half the fun.”

—Robert D. Kaplan, Atlantic Monthly correspondent

and author of Balkan Ghosts and Imperial Grunts

“Absorbing.”

—The New York Times

“Informative and charming…Chua's thesis is ingenious and thought-provoking.”

—The Baltimore Sun

“Brilliant.”

—National Review

“Ambitious and challenging…[Chua] has at once shifted and in some ways elevated the interpretive terrain.”

—Chicago Tribune

“Fascinating A lively read, full of intriguing factoids.”

—Salon

“From ancient Achaemenid Persia to the modern United States, by way of Rome, Tang China, and the Spanish, Dutch, and British Empires, Amy Chua tells the story of the world's hyperpow-ers—that elite of empires which, in their heyday, were truly without equal. Not everyone will be persuaded by her ingenious thesis that religious and racial tolerance was a prerequisite for global dominance, but also the slow solvent of that cultural ‘glue’ which holds a great nation together. But few readers will fail to be impressed by the height of this book's ambition and by the breadth of scholarship on which it is based.”

—Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History,

Harvard University, and author of Empire:

The Rise and Demise of the British World

Order and the Lessons for Global Power

“Scintillating history, breathtaking in scope and chock-full of insight. Amy Chua argues persuasively that the real key to acquiring and maintaining great power lies in the ability to attract and assimilate, rather than to coerce or intimidate.”

—Andrew J. Bacevich, author of

The New American Militarism:

How Americans Are Seduced by War

“Amy Chua is a law professor, but in this book she writes as a sage historian. She draws lessons from the past that one who cares about the future cannot afford to ignore.”

—Amitai Etzioni, author of Security First:

For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy

AMY CHUA

DAY OF EMPIRE

Amy Chua is the John Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She is the author of World on Fire and a noted expert in the fields of international business, ethnic conflict, and globalization. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with her husband, daughters Sophia and Louisa, and their Samoyeds Coco and Pushkin.

ALSO BY AMY CHUA

World on Fire

To Jed, Sophia, and Louisa

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION: THE SECRET TO WORLD DOMINANCE

PART ONE: THE TOLERANCE OF BARBARIANS

ONE

THE FIRST HEGEMON

The Great Persian Empire from Cyrus to Alexander

TWO

TOLERANCE IN ROME'S HIGH EMPIRE

Gladiators, Togas, and Imperial “Glue”

THREE

CHINA'S GOLDEN AGE

The Mixed-Blooded Tang Dynasty

FOUR

THE GREAT MONGOL EMPIRE

Cosmopolitan Barbarians

PART TWO: THE ENLIGHTENING OF TOLERANCE

FIVE

THE “PURIFICATION” OF MEDIEVAL SPAIN

Inquisition, Expulsion, and the Price of Intolerance

SIX

THE DUTCH WORLD EMPIRE

Diamonds, Damask, and Every “Mongrel Sect in Christendom”

SEVEN

TOLERANCE AND INTOLERANCE IN THE EAST

The Ottoman, Ming, and Mughal Empires

EIGHT

THE BRITISH EMPIRE

“Rebel Buggers” and the “White Man's Burden”

PART THREE: THE FUTURE OF WORLD DOMINANCE

NINE

THE AMERICAN HYPERPOWER

Tolerance and the Microchip

TEN

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE AXIS POWERS

Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan

ELEVEN

THE CHALLENGERS

China, the European Union, and India in the Twenty-first Century

TWELVE

THE DAY OF EMPIRE

Lessons of History

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTES

I think of my father as the quintessential American. Both he and my mother were Chinese, but grew up in the Philippines. They were children during World War II and lived under Japanese Occupation until General Douglas MacArthur liberated the Philippines in 1945.

My father remembers running after American jeeps, cheering wildly, as U.S. troops tossed out