Julian Go is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University. He is also a Faculty Affiliate in Asian Studies and New England and American Studies at Boston University. He is editor of the journal Political Power and Social Theory. He is a former Academy Scholar at Harvard University's Academy for International and Area Studies. His first book, American Empire and the Politics of Meaning, won the Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book from the American Sociological Association and was a finalist for a Philippines National Book Award. His other books include The American Colonial State in the Philippines: Global Perspectives, which he co-edited and More American Than We Admit: The Influence of American Culture on the Philippines, which he edited.

• 1. Imperial paths to power; 2. Colonial rules; 3. Hegemonies and empires; 4. Imperial forms, global fields; 5. Weary titans: declining powers, new imperialism; 6. The dynamics of imperialism.

'Rigorously thought out, lucidly written, and empirically insightful, Julian Go's work dispatches arguments that the United States has not been an empire and sets out convincingly the changing nature of that empire. Far from being just a demonstration of what ought to have been obvious before now – the role of empire in American history – Go advances our understanding of the trajectory of empire and informs contemporary debates about the future of the United States and its global hegemony. This is a stunning application of transnational and comparative methods of analysis.' Ian Tyrrell, Scientia Professor of History, University of New South Wales