The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire - Star Wars Book Review

The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire has been out for a few weeks, but I just finally finished it! Here is my review of the in-universe history book written by Beaumont Kin aka Dr. Chris Kempshall.

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[Igor_the_Mad]

I had no idea this book existed until now, but as a philosophy and history buff, this is *exactly* the sort of Star Wars book I love.

[cameronhead]

As a history major. I'm excited to read this

[LilliBlackmore]

I had no idea this existed and experienced a real, "Shut up and take my money" moment within the first 30 seconds.😅

[supremespoon]

I think the detail about using the BBY dating system is probably also a reference to the historical debate of using the BC/AD dating system vs. the BCE/CE dating system.

[myriadmediamusings]

I had no idea this book was a thing till its release day when my friend mentoned it. Went to B&N on the same day and got my copy, and I absolutely love it.

Can be up there as one of the best in-universe reference books. It being done like a textbook complete with footnotes I dont think has been done yet for Star Wars, and it does a good job tying in all corners of Star Wars and contextualizing it as real history. Not surprising since the author/historian was inspired by the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

[CC]

I loved this book so much, it felt like a callback to the old Essential Guides in that it actually had its own little stories and subplots that it created in between all the stuff it's summarising, with little vignettes between characters and everything.

[Jedi_Spartan]

Also even though it would probably only have niche appeal, it could be interesting to see a Star Wars show that's based around an in universe history documentary as an equivalent to this: either based around the entire reign of the Empire like this book, the Galactic Civil War specifically or the Clone Wars.

Alternatively, there are various topics from Legends that I'd like to have seen in this format.

[ToastyAvocado]

I love how this book made both Skywalker: Family at War, and Battles that Changed the Galaxy canon text books within the universe. It's almost like we have a small reading list for a Galactic History course that characters would take

[Dalek]

I loved this book and the fact that it was written by an actual historian only makes it so much better.

And a little thing from the footnotes is my absolute love for the idea that they pilfered so much data from the ruins of Exegol to plug in Sith gaps. Guess even Sidious had to keep a written record of it somewhere.

[darkbryne]

Currently half way through this book and really enjoying it. I'm a historian of U.S. foreign relations and imperialism, and whilst reading it, I was constantly thinking about the ways in which the Star Wars universe mirrors the themes that I've read about and studied in real historical scholarship. For example, even the passing comments on currency changes after the formation of the Empire draw upon the real case of U.S. colonialism in the Philippines and Hawai'i that has been analysed by historians such as Alvita Akiboha.

[knows-pickler]

A little disappointed in myself how much the pitch for the book at the beginning is so accurate to my life

[michaelkaduck]

The book being set after Episode 9 is a good way of adding to the era before the New Jedi Order film. I would really like a story where Beaumont or perhaps his students tried to uncover truths about the bad guys, because investigative journalism and history is more important to know than ever if we are to not repeat history.
The fact that people will learn the wrong lessons has only made our world more dangerous than ever for marginalized people, and enables countries to justify atrocities. (Myanmar, Russia, Israel and Sudan to name a few.)

"The power of the Dark Side, Sidious, is a disease no Sith would wish to be cured of."
-Darth Plagueis

[sambilson]

I keep seeing copies of this book locally, I'm currently studying for a masters degree in History, particularly with a focus on military history and Kempshall was someone who had come up on my radar before. Another thing to note is that this is one of those titles that definetly looks like its playing to that age old thing of "academia rewards specificity" so I guess if one's not ready to dig into a mountinous bibliography then probably give this a miss, but that being said, I personally will be picking this up!

[StuartLugsden]

This book falls into the same category as Rey's journal, the vaults editions like the Jedi Path, the propaganda poster by Pablo Hidalgo, Scum and Villainy case files and Scott Langs book from Ant Man 3.

[vortan]

I've always believed that Hoth was a Rebel victory.

The Rebels did not expect a military victory. They fought a delaying action allowing the supplies and 90% of the Rebel command structure to escape the Empire. Which they did, with Princess (and General?) Leia being the last to leave. Only the Troops who fought the delaying action were left behind (some may have reached transports)

Even the fighters were taken after the speeders were abandoned.

Lets look at the Imperial goals. Crush the Rebel Bade - this they did. Capture or Kill the Rebel Leadership.- fail. And Vader, to capture Luke Skywalker - Also a fail.

Yes, the loss of the base, and troops hurt, tge supplies and equipment lost also hurt. But within the next year, (or say year and a half, since i bealueve it took months for yhe Falcon to reach Bedpin) they grew again to be able to strike Enfor.

The Empire failed 2/3 of their goals, while the Rebels achieved their goal, but at a cost.

[vincently]

Episode I-III = Pre-Imperial Era
Episode IV-VII = Imperial Era
Episode VIII-XI = Post-Imperial Era

[shipambrosia]

A book by a historian professor!! This is my dream!! I wanna get a doctorate because I love wetlands but ALSO I want to use my doctorate to convince Star Wars to let me write an ecology of planets book 😂😂
This book sounds AWESOME though!!

[michaelsimpson]

Sounds a lot like the Star Wars equivalent of GRR Martin’s Fire and Blood, and I've listened to Fire and Blood like three whole times.

100% picking this one up!

Edit: apparently there's no plans for an audiobook release, which is pretty damn disappointing. Audio is by for the most accessible option for me (dyslexia and adhd make physical reading a novel a particularly unpleasant task). Hope they change their minds

[RecoveryHacker]

I'm going to have to put this right next to my "Star Wars and History" text by Nancy Reagin and Janice Liedl.

[starwarsunfiltered]

Back in the '90s the closest thing we had to this was West End Games' Imperial Sourcebook, which was a treasure trove of deep political lore about the Empire and its rise to power. And just like this book is limited by "classified information" in regards to Thrawn's later exploits and other upcoming stories, the Imperial Sourcebook (and many other pre-2002 reference guides) had the unfortunate result of most of the Clone Wars details unavailable due to destroyed records, buried societal trauma, and other such reasons.

So, as we see happening once again, history just moves in cycles and repeats itself. 😎