This groundbreaking 11,000-year history argues that empire
was never just about weapons or ships—it was built on collecting information on
us, to rule us.
We live in an era when trading our information for access
can feel harmless or inevitable. Yet, from targeted advertising to mass
surveillance, data shapes the course of our lives. How did it gain the power it
now holds over us?
Long before writing existed, at the dawn of civilization in
Mesopotamia, rulers pressed marks into clay to keep track of land, people, and
grain. To rule, they had to keep count. It is no accident, then, that the first
written name in human history was neither a god nor a king, but an accountant.
As ships and navigation expanded our horizons, a new age of European empires
took control of more than 80 percent of the world’s surface, using colonial
censuses, maps, and ledgers to decide who belonged, who owed, and who could be
sacrificed. Today, a handful of private brokers increasingly define what we see
and what is real.
Taking readers from ancient cave markings and knotted
strings to the algorithmic state, Dartmouth professor Roopika Risam reveals how
data has always been the seed of power—a technology of control that has shaped
civilizations and upheld empires. Provocative, humane, and sweeping in
scope, Data Empire challenges us to decide whether we will
allow a new set of data empires to hardwire inequality into the next century,
or fight for systems that work for the benefit of all.
About The Author
Roopika Risam is Professor of Digital Humanities and
Social Engagement at Dartmouth. Her research explores how histories of race,
empire, and technology shape the modern world.
She is the author of New Digital Worlds:
Postcolonial Digital Humanities in Theory, Praxis, and Pedagogy, which has
been taught in over 150 universities worldwide. She is also co-editor of four
collections, including Anti-Racist Community Engagement and The
Digital Black Atlantic.
Risam is past president of the Association for Computers and
the Humanities, the U.S. scholarly organization for digital research in the
humanities.
