The Mughal World: India's Tainted Paradise Book

A massive, indeed exhaustive, look at the Mughal empire--administration, military organisation, food, sexual mores, religious structure, class structure. It's massive, and obviously some parts are really not for the general reader (or not this one anyway). Along with his book The Mughal Throne I feel like I have a lot more sense of what/when/how the Mughal empire was, which is a start to a shamefully neglected part of my education. Highly informative and colourful, if not light reading.

Author feels very strongly that the empire was administratively speaking basically a disgrace and shambles after Akbar, and makes a case for this whose merits I am in no way equipped to judge, but it's fascinating to read. The empire was just too big, and the Mughals (except Akbar) too focused on their own enrichment--emperor after emperor presiding over a system of squeezing the poor till the pips squeaked, and effectively discouraging investment in the country's future by people at all levels in favour of personal enrichment by whatever means.

Also, Aurangzeb is still a dick.