1616
The World in Motion
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- £10.99
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- £10.99
Publisher Description
A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN TIME: Discover surprising stories of the pioneering men and women who ushered the world toward modernity in this continent-spanning slice of world history.
Features 140 full-color reproductions of period artwork, engravings, maps, and drawings, with fascinating sidebars throughout.
The early 17th century was a time of enormous change in most regions of the world. The advent of maritime globalism accelerated the exchange of both goods and ideas, and the first international mega-corporations started to emerge as economic powers.
In Europe, the deaths of Shakespeare and Cervantes marked the end of an era in literature. The discoveries of Kepler and Galileo inspired new attitudes that would lead to an age of revolutions.
Great changes were also taking place in East Asia, where the last native Chinese dynasty was entering its final years and Japan was beginning its long period of warrior rule. Artists there were rethinking their connections to ancient traditions and experimenting with new directions.
Women everywhere were redefining their roles in family and society. Slave trading was relocating large numbers of people, while others were migrating in search of new opportunities. The first tourists, traveling not for trade or exploration but for personal fulfillment, were exploring this new globalized world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the outset, Christensen confesses his lack of academic standing to write history, given his background as a translator (Like Water for Chocolate, with Carol Christensen) and editor and director of publications at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum. Nevertheless, he has created a stunning overview of the nascent modern world through a thematic exploration of the year 1616. Christensen's interweaves various narratives to describe such trends as the increasing roles of private corporations like the Dutch East India Company and of economics in world politics or the emerging voices of women as writers such as Dorothy Leigh, whose The Mother's Blessing had 23 printings and occasionally powerful participants in statecraft, like Nur Jahan, who aided her husband in ruling the Mughal empire. Juxtaposing concurrent growths in witch hunting and scientific discoveries, Christensen points out that Kepler calculated the laws of planetary motion while also defending his mother, an illiterate herbalist, against witchcraft charges. Careful to include events from around the world, not just Europe and the Americas, Christensen enhances his excellent explications of backgrounds and settings with dozens of fabulous illustrations. Most readers will want an atlas to track the action in 1616's "world in motion."
