1688: A Global History

by John E Wills (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $4.31

  This work is a survey of the world on the threshold of modernity and a sweeping narrative of different cultures being drawn together by the pull of trade and violence: a world where spices, silver and slaves made fortunes and ruined lives. The reader is taken on a journey around the world, through Russia, where Tsar Peter is about to launch a coup that will change his country's history forever; to the splendid court of the Sun King in France; to Mexico; to the Sonora desert of North America, where a Jesuit priest and his tribe of Pima Indian converts are about to discover California; to Manila, Jamaica, Australia, South Africa, Siam and to England, where a Dutch king lands in Dorset to begin the Glorious Revolution and fashion the state under which we still live.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.28

  Historian John E. Wills presents a picture of the world over just one year, a time when only a few travellers and merchants were aware of societies beyond their own. The book reflects the variety, splendour and strangeness of the human condition.