The volume edited by Bernhard C. Schär and Mikko Toivanen, two scholars specializing in global and imperial history, positions itself at the intersection of several historiographical traditions – from colonial and postcolonial histories to global and imperial history. Drawing selectively on a range of approaches, it examines the diverse configurations of imperial power and the spatial geometries through which empires were governed. While the subject is by no means new, contributions that seek to refine and recalibrate the conceptual and methodological frameworks available to scholars in the field are particularly welcome. That said, the effectiveness of such interventions ultimately depends on their ability to move beyond established paradigms and to generate genuinely new insights into the concept of empire and its diverse practices on a global scale.

I consider the twelve contributions in this volume – ten thematic chapters, an introduction, and an afterword – to be genuinely relevant for the scholarly community, not only because they introduce new empirical material, but also because they sustain a critical and timely debate around key conceptual issues. In particular, the question of asymmetries between different “Europes”, and the ways in which imbalances of agency are reflected in imperial dynamics, run throughout the volume. These themes, however, often remain implicit – at times perhaps overly so – and would benefit from more explicit and sustained articulation, both within individual case studies and across the volume’s overarching argument.

As a historian of technology with a particular interest in how small, peripheral European countries such as Portugal use imperial spaces to negotiate identity and agency within Europe, I find the concept of “colonialism without colonies” especially compelling given that it stands in stark contrast to my own research framework. First articulated by Barbara Lüthi, Francesca Falk, and Patricia Purtschert in their articles “Switzerland and ‘Colonialism without Colonies’: Reflections on the Status of Colonial Outsiders” and “Colonialism without Colonies: Examining Blank Spaces in Colonial Studies”,Footnote ¹ the concept opens up a critical reflection on its epistemic value and heuristic reach. It also invites a reassessment of the gains and losses associated with this “outsider position” from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through to the present. Crucially, it draws attention to the blind spots within the canon of colonial studies, demonstrating how states could exercise forms of domination, exploitation, and cultural supremacy without formal overseas possessions, and how so-called “neutral” or non-colonizing countries nonetheless participated in and benefited from global colonial systems through trade, military involvement, and the circulation of imperial ideologies.

The introduction by the two editors clearly frames the volume, outlining its conceptual framework, objectives, structure, and the content of the individual contributions, before concluding with a synthesis that situates the book within broader debates on the concept of Europe and its inherently non-monolithic nature. It further includes a carefully curated selection of sixteen key works in the field, which strengthens the dialogue with the conceptual framework presented and guides the reader toward deeper engagement with the relevant historiography. It is also worth noting that this volume is available open access, made possible through funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), a commendable contribution to scholarly accessibility.

As Schär and Toivanen note, the ten chapters are organized into two mirrored sections of five essays each. In Part One, the case studies examine the role of transimperial networks in integrating the countries under discussion into Europe’s broader imperial fabric, that is, “from the outside in” (p. 7); in Part Two, the essays “take the opposite approach” (p. 7) and explore how national identities are negotiated within dynamics of power marked by significant asymmetries. The editors also include an afterword by sociologist Manuela Boatcă, which provides a valuable complementary perspective, reinforcing the volume’s emphasis on complexity and on the multiplicity of voices and agencies within the European space. This contribution underscores that Europe cannot be understood solely within its geographical boundaries, but must instead be approached as a construct shaped by a long-term and multifaceted process of globalization. The volume further benefits from the inclusion of a comprehensive and highly useful index.

The chapters in Part One – by John L. Hennessey, André Nicacio Lima, Tonje Haugland Sørensen, Fabio Rossinelli, and Tomasz Ewertowski – respectively examine the transnational and transimperial nature of expertise, functioning, in Daniel Headrick’s classic formulation, as “tools of empire”; the transcontinental scope of global economic networks linking Europe, Africa, and South America through a case study of post-independence Brazil; the construction of Norwegian “colonial” identity through the export of its chalet model, which facilitated a sustained presence in the Belgian colonies, where it was adopted as housing for European settlers; the role of actors operating outside formal institutional frameworks – in this case, a family with a strong industrial and commercial presence – in constructing familial empires that, largely unconstrained, exploited colonial spaces and their human and material resources; and the role of Poland and Serbia as providers of multiple forms of expertise to different imperial powers.

In Part Two, the authors Kristin Loftsdóttir, Szabolcs László, Corinne Geering, Janne Lahti, and Lucile Dreidemy and Eric Burton focus respectively on notions of superiority and inferiority shaped by phrenological frameworks (as in the French busts of Icelanders) and by cultural and civilizational hierarchies (as in Hungarian representations of Inner Asian peoples); on the hybrid ideological space of internal colonialism, constructed through the normalization of colonial hierarchies and their transfer into national contexts using a softer – albeit equally discriminatory – form of the colonial “civilizing mission” directed at the “other” (as illustrated in case studies of rural central and eastern Europe and Finland’s engagement with the region of Petsamo); and on projects of purported supranationalism designed to ensure the continuity of imperial formations, such as the Pan-European Union.

Taken together, these contributions reveal the profoundly unbalanced construction of the European space and underscore the importance of recovering actors whose agency has been erased from dominant historical narratives because it did not conform to the perspectives of the centres. The subtitle, “At the Margins of Empire”, is particularly telling in this regard: it evokes both the positioning of these cases at the periphery of the so-called centres and their subsequent marginalization within historiography. In this sense, the volume makes a significant contribution by enriching the historical corpus with the study of the many “others” that have shaped European identity.

At the same time, the reader is inevitably left wanting more – an indication not of limitation, but of the richness and generative potential of the questions the book raises. It would have been valuable to see these case studies more explicitly engaged with theoretical frameworks centred on centre–periphery dynamics, particularly in light of the revisions advanced by the STEP (Science and Technology in the European Periphery) research network. Such engagement would also benefit from a more explicit comparative analysis of asymmetries of colonial power, as well as of the differing strategies of domination and legitimation adopted by overseas and contiguous empires.

Overall, the volume makes a substantial and welcome contribution to debates on Europe, imperial formations, and the uneven distribution of agency across space and time. By bringing into focus actors, networks, and processes long excluded from dominant narratives, it challenges entrenched centre–periphery frameworks and deepens our understanding of European and imperial dynamics. At the same time – and while more explicit engagement with these dimensions would have further strengthened an already compelling volume – it invites further reflection on the conceptual tools it mobilizes, particularly centre–periphery models, asymmetries of power, and the diverse strategies of imperial domination and legitimation. Rich in insights and conceptually stimulating, this is a volume well worth reading.