Books

Robert is the author of three acclaimed books of history: an exploration of nationalism and state-building in southeast Europe; an account of how epidemics have shaped modern Asia; and a bold new global history of fear, which examines how fear has been understood and used as a tool of power over the last millennium. Ambitious in scope, Robert’s books grapple with some of the most urgent questions of our time: Why do we take a world of nation-states for granted? How have diseases affected human societies? And what do we do when our most cherished values – freedom, equality and justice – turn out to be inseparable from our worst fears?