Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Print.

When looking for a book in the library, I started as I usually do. I went onto the Skillman library webpage and searched in the catalog section. I typed in Mughal Empire and history of India. I clicked on the first book on the list and was intrigued by the picture on the cover online, it was a Prince that reminded me of the picture seen on the BBC recording about the Mughal Empire. Locating the book was not too difficult because the search results gives you the location in Skillman, this particular book was located in the Upper level and after following the call number I was able to find the book fairly quickly. As I flipped through the book I was interested in the Map of India located adjacent to the title page that showed the expansion of the Mughal Empire over time; as well as, attempts of Mughal Expansion and the location of the Suri Empire. The book itself is part of a collection of books called the The New Cambridge History of India, the collection is divided into four categories beginning with The Mughals and their Contemporaries, Indian States and the Transition to Colonialism, The Indian Empire and the Beginning of Modern Society, and The Evolution of Contemporary South Asia. Each category has a number of books published under it. The Mughal Empire is divided into twelve chapters, one of which is focused on Jahangir. Jahangir’s chapter is divided into small subsections including Consolidation on the internal frontier, enriching imperial culture, aggression on the northeastern frontier as well as relations with Persia and Central Asia. Just flipping through this chapter gave me insight in the aggressive and expansionist goals Jahangir as well as geographical and religious threats around his empire. Overall, I think this book would allow us more insight on the Mughal Empire and how it was able to maintain its power for so long, especially with succession being open ended. In the case of Jahangir he had almost lost the throne to his eldest son. Succession in the Mughal Empire was determined through military success and through power, as seen by Shah Jahan’s rise to power. Reading this books would allow us better insight on the Mughal Empire and how they could be compared and contrasted to other Empires at the time.