The Historical Sociology of Empire: Response to Critics of Patterns of Empire

Go’s contribution to the book forum on Patterns of Empire responds to the critiques of the other commentators in the section. Although Go disagrees with some of the readings of his work, he welcomes future studies—whether comparative, postcolonial, transnational, or otherwise—that interrogate and challenge empire’s exceptionalist fantasies of uniqueness, power, and agency. Empires are far too sprawling and devious to be left in the hands of any single discipline, method, or theoretical approach. To this, Go writes, the US empire is no exception.