1688 : A Global History

by Wills, John E.

• ISBN13: 9780393047448
• ISBN10: 039304744X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

A rich, kaleidoscopic history of the world in a year at the dawn of modern times. Told with the verve and color of Robert Darnton's bestseller The Great Cat Massacre, Jack 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. Walk the pungent streets of Amsterdam and enter the Rasp House, where vagrants, beggars, and petty criminals labor to produce powdered brazilwood for the dyeworks. Meet the Dog Shogun who rules Edo Castle, issuing countless edicts forbidding cruelty to dogs. Through these stories, Wills paints a detailed picture of how the global connections of power, money, and belief were beginning to lend the world its modern form. 12 b/w illustrations.

Author Biography

John E. Wills, Jr., is professor of history at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	x
Acknowledgments	xi
January 3, 1688: A Baroque Prelude	1	(8)
PART I. A WORLD OF WOODEN SHIPS	9	(58)
The Empire of Silver	13	(19)
Many Africas	32	(13)
Slaves, Ships, and Frontiers	45	(15)
Dampier and the Aborigines	60	(7)
PART II. THE WORLD OF THE GREAT COMPANY	67	(26)
The Cape of Good Hope	69	(5)
The Island World	74	(13)
Phaulkon	87	(6)
PART III. THREE WORLDS APART: RUSSIA, CHINA, JAPAN	93	(74)
Tsar Peter's Russia	95	(10)
Survivors and Visionaries	105	(8)
At the Court of Kangxi	113	(15)
The Jesuits and China	128	(17)
Kanazawa, Edo, Nagasaki	145	(13)
Saikaku and Basho	158	(9)
PART IV. VERSAILLES, LONDON, AMSTERDAM	167	(52)
The Sun King and the Ladies	169	(11)
A Family Quarrel and a Glorious Revolution	180	(15)
Echoes across the Oceans	195	(12)
A Hundred Years of Freedom	207	(12)
PART V. WORLDS OF WORDS: STYLES AND THOUGHT IN EUROPE	219	(34)
In the Republic of Letters	223	(14)
Aphra Behn	237	(5)
Newton, Locke, and Leibniz	242	(11)
PART VI. ISLAM AND ITS OTHERS	253	(40)
The World of the Great Sultan	255	(14)
Mecca	269	(7)
Hindus and Muslims	276	(9)
Englishmen, Indians, and Others	285	(8)
PART VII. EXILE, HOPE, AND FAMILY	293	(12)
Next Year in Jerusalem	295	(7)
O Well Is Thee	302	(3)
Sources and Further Reading	305	(10)
Credits	315	(2)
Index	317