1688 – A Global History - Softcover

Wills, John E

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393322785 ISBN 13: 9780393322781

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002

Synopsis

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. "A vivid picture of life in 1688...filled with terrifying violence, frightening diseases...comfortingly familiar human kindnesses...and the intellectual achievements of Leibniz, Locke, and Newton."-Publishers Weekly

About this title

Synopsis:

A rich, vivid chronicle of the dawn of the modern period focuses on the world in 1688, from the Russian steppes and the Japanese and Chinese courts to the streets of Europe and the pilgrimage routes of the Middle East. Reprint.

About the Author:

John E. Wills, Jr., is professor of history at the University of Southern California and the author of many acclaimed works in cultural history, including Mountain of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0393322785
• ISBN 13: 9780393322781
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352