| Front Cover |
Book Details |
|
| Genre |
Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
History, Modern - 17th century |
| Publication Date |
January 2001 |
| Format |
Hardcover (9.8
x
6.5
mm)
|
| Publisher |
Norton |
| Language |
English |
| Extras |
Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover |
|
| Description |
| John E. Wills's masterful history ushers us into the worlds of 1688, from the suicidal exaltation of Russian Old Believers to the ravishing voice of the haiku poet Basho. Witness the splendor of the Chinese imperial court as the Kangxi emperor publicly mourns the death of his grandmother and shrewdly consolidates his power. Join the great caravans of Muslims on their annual pilgrimage from Damascus and Cairo to Mecca. Walk the pungent streets of Amsterdam and enter the Rasp House, where vagrants, beggars, and petty criminals labored to produce powdered brazilwood for the dyeworks.Through these stories and many others, Wills paints a detailed picture of how the global connections of power, money, and belief were beginning to lend the world its modern form. |
| Personal Details |
| Store |
Powell's City of Books |
| Purchase Price |
$12.95 |
| Acquire Date |
3/20/2014 |
| Condition |
Very Good/Good |
| Rating |
0 |
| Links |
Library of Congress
|
|
| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
D246 .W55 2001 |
| Dewey |
909.6 |
| ISBN |
9780393047448 |
| Cover Price |
$27.95 |
| No. of Pages |
330 |
| First Edition |
No |
| Rare |
No |
|
| Notes/Review |
Scotch tape repairs to dj
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This book is more or less a collection of vignettes about what was happening all over the world at the end of the 17th century. For the most part, each little story is about one person. To get any sense of what that person was up to in 1688, it is necessary to tell what happened before and after that year, so it's not specifically about 1688.
None of the stories are about the natives of the Americas, Africa, or Australia as those peoples lacked the written word. So what we learn about those folks is from the point of view of Europeans for the most part.
Many of the people in the book are well-known historical figures - Tsar Peter, the Sun King, Newton, Leibniz - but a good many were new to me.
I found the construct of telling a slice of world history in this manner interesting - it's a different way of slicing history, if you will. |
|