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
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Ww Norton & Co
ISBN-10
0393322785
ISBN-13
9780393322781
eBay Product ID (ePID)
104364027
Product Key Features
Author
Mr. John E. Wills
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Subject
History: World & General
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
New York
Content Note
Illustrations
Author Biography
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.