Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: 1688: A Global History by John E., Jr. Wills ISBN: 0-393-32278-5 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: "the sketch and the anectdote" woven into world history
Comment: John Wills takes a unique approach to writing global history by focusing on the world in a single year. More accurately, this is a history of the late 17th century in which the year 1688 serves as nexus, and justifies bringing together stories that he "stumbled across" while researching European-Chinese relations. The result is a somewhat personal and idiosyncratic, but very entertaining, book. He does not engage in extensive analysis, preferring the sketch and the anecdote to the Grand Narrative. The notions of fragmentation and serendipity, rather than system and analysis, guide the presentation: "The historian seeking to sketch a world tries not to be confined to any style, any set of questions but to follow hunches, to let one thing lead to another. Like Shitao letting the One Stroke appear in many forms, he hopes to avoid system and to put before his reader many pictures of a world, reflecting the unconfineable variety, splendor, and strangeness of the human condition" (P 112). The appeal of the book is that it is centered on the stories of real people, some of whom are well known and others obscure.
In my judgment the strongest parts of the book focus on points of cross-cultural contacts, what might be considered the "boundary" areas rather than the traditional "centers" of civilization. Here the sense of a dynamic, living world emerges most vividly. Rather than a world of static, closed societies, the world in 1688 is one in which boundaries are not rigid. People move about and encounter each other in pursuit of commerce, adventure, and plunder. A variety of cross-cultural contacts appear in these pages: individuals adapting to foreign and alien settings, diaspora merchant communities prospering and struggling, communities resulting from the forcible transplanting of people brought about by slavery, Creole societies in the New World, frontier towns like Potosi that brought together fortune seekers from all over.
One example of interconnectedness that affected people and communities in various parts of the world is the Atlantic slave trade. Portuguese activities left their cultural imprint on the Congo, where we see an African chief writing to a Capuchin Priest in Portuguese and calling himself "Dom Joao Manoel Grilho, who treads on the lion in his mother's belly" (P. 32). Across the Atlanta in Brazil, escaped slaves formed their own settlements called quilombos. They grew their own food, had they own smiths, and some grew as large as twenty thousand people. Eventually, leaders of coastal towns, suffering from raids by these quilombos, banded together with bandeirantes, Brazilian frontiersmen in the business of enslaving Indians, and in 1694 destroyed the largest of these communities, killing and enslaving those who remained. Meanwhile, back in London in 1688, a woman writer named Aphra Behn published Oroonoko: Or, The Royal Slave. This is the story of an escaped slave set in Surinam on the north coast of South America. It is brutal in its details of the cruelty of the whites and the suffering of the blacks. We see here that events in Africa and America are affecting the moral awareness of some people in Europe.
Wills argues that significant developments coalesced around 1688 heralding our own modern world. These developments were: "the rise of science; the growth of cities and commerce; government policies promoting economic growth; an immense variety of writing and publishing, some of it for broad urban audiences; some very individual and idiosyncratic acceptances and reinterpretations of the great religions; protests against slavery and the subordination of women." Furthermore, he argues that these developments, while led by Europe, were global, and that, "many readers will be surprised to find somewhat comparable changes taking place in many different parts of the world." The problem with seeking out origins of our own world is that it distorts the actual world of 1688. Furthermore, I think that these themes of incipient modernity, while perhaps suitable assessments of European developments, are something of a procrustean bed for the rest of the world.
Wills asserts that it was only a few Europeans who truly held a global perspective at that time. This is cleverly insinuated in the preface to his first chapter, "A World of Wooden Ships," through introducing us to the Venetian map and globe-maker Father Vincenzo Coronelli, a Venetian Friar, who is producing most accurate contemporary world atlas and globe. Creating the globe, he makes one triangular strip at a time, sending them to subscribers, European of course, throughout the world, who will finally assembly them into completed globes. This is an apt metaphor for the European global expansion. However, there is a whiff of teleology in anticipating European world dominance in later centuries.
Rating: 5
Summary: two thumbs up
Comment: John E. Wills Jr. produced an amazing piece of work when he published 1688: A Global History in 2002. His retelling of the events that occurred 314 years before is astonishing in its detail and personalization. He does not give dull facts, but as he said he, "hoped to convey to [the] reader some of [the] astonishment at the voices I have heard." (5) I give the work "two thumbs up" because in my opinion it excels in the two major areas a history text should excel in. It is factual, detailed and accurate, but it is also highly enjoyable reading and draws the reader into itself. The approach used in the text is very interesting, and certainly has a place in a global history course. His non-Eurocentric viewpoint is refreshing and allows for a more accurate picture of the year 1688 to be developed. His ingenuity concerning the wide use of many different kinds of sources sharpens the image and gives us new perspective. The background information he gives to the different stories that appear is enough to allow us better understanding, but does not drown us in too many facts. His major focus on the basic shifts that we can see traces of in 1688 that will later create our own world allow for a degree of continuity throughout the work. Overall Wills creates a very good book, one that is both enjoyable and one that truly teaches us something in a way we may never have considered it before. As he calls it, the "baroque" quality of all the events going on in 1688, the intricacies and interconnectedness give us a perfect picture of life in that year.
When it boils down to it, 1688: A Global History is a history text. In this way it surely is a good one. The facts contained within are all accurate, and all ready to be learned from. For a professor creating a curriculum for a global history course this would be a wonderful choice to either start the course off with or conclude with. It gives the reader or student a sense of a true global history. Wills tells us of events and people around the globe in one given year. This allows us to see the interconnectedness of the world, and how important it is to have a good understanding of global history. Clearly you cannot teach a global history course composed entirely with this type of manuscript, they simply do not exist. But this can be used to either introduce the importance of global understanding to a new student or tie a semester or a year's worth of teaching together at the end and remind the student of the importance of what was taught. Either way, 1688: A Global History truly is a global history and has its own place in global history curriculums.
A student in a global history course may begrudge adding another 300 page book to their list of texts for the semester. It may seem like too much work for a trivial lesson they can be told rather than have to read for themselves as well. A student can be told the importance of global history without reading this book, but a true understanding may be missed. Students may grumble when they first see this additional text on the syllabus, but once they begin reading the complaints with dull to a murmur and then fade to nothing. This book is enjoyable and easy to read. It is not easy to read in that it is written for simpletons, it is easy to read because it grabs the reader's attention and flows like a good novel. This is rare in history texts. History is, after all, a story, and it should be told like one, with emphasis on character development and plot progression. 1688: A Global History would at times feel more like a good novel than a history text. This makes it go by quickly, and any student appreciates a book like that. Because the book is such a good read it appeals to a broader audience as well, not only those in the profession, though because of the title it may have to be strongly recommended by a friend in order to actually be taken into consideration. What 1688: A Global History does is draw the reader into the complexities of the story it tells, and does not let them go.
This book is highly reccommended, and the above paragraphs are part of a much longer review I had to write for one of my classes. I really enjoyed reading this book and reccommend it to anyone. I'm very glad my professor assigned this text, and I don't say that often!
Rating: 4
Summary: A Whirlwind Journey
Comment: This book attempted a Herculean feat, to present a synopsis of events occuring in 1688 globally and someone try to tie them all togther in a succint historical context. To some extent, the author succeeded. The reader is introduced to areas of the globe not commonly covered in college courses which emphasize Western History. The book is also well written and includes personal stories of people who lived at the time, in addition to the "big picture" of wars, famines, uprisings, discoveries, philosophies, and rulers. However, with any attempt this grand, the book is strained and overly dense, making it hard to digest. After a while, the whirlwind tour, rather than illuminate, feels like a bad case of jet lag. One is tired and whoozy, filled with scattered images, and a little curious to read more selective and in depth history dwelling on a portion of the trip.
 |
Title: The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom, Updated Edition by Sandra MacKey ISBN: 0393324176 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild ISBN: 0618001905 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Human Record: Sources of Global History : To 1700 by Alfred J. Andrea, James H. Overfield ISBN: 0618042458 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $46.76 |
 |
Title: Mountain of Fame by John E., Jr. Wills ISBN: 0691026742 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 22 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
 |
Title: The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative by Robert Marks, Robert B. Marks ISBN: 0742517543 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Non NBN) Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
