Download ap world history - Stillwater Central School District

AP WORLD HISTORY
SUMMER REQUIREMENTS
Due Date: Friday September 14, 2012
The following book report assignment is intended to open your mind to a greater depth and breadth of world
history. Hopefully you will find your choice to be interesting and eye-opening in that it causes you to think
about history from a fresh perspective. That, after all, is one of the goals for this AP course.
I admire you for having the initiative to challenge yourself in this course. I am very excited about teaching it. It
will be challenging, but not impossible. I hope you will even find it exciting and intriguing. I will do my best
and I will ask no less from each of you. Together, I expect to learn much and even have some fun along the
way.
If you have any concerns contact me as soon as possible at: [email protected]
Have an enjoyable and relaxing summer. See you in September.
Mr. McCoy
Book Report Assignment
Each student is to choose one book from the following list. Each student’s choice must be unique; therefore you
need to sign up with me by July via email. Please tell me what book you have chosen using my school
email address…[email protected]. Choices will be approved on a first come first served basis.
The books on the list were chosen for the following reasons:
1. many are short
2. many are written from the indigenous point of view, that is for example, Africans are writing about the
African experience
3. they are of high historical, literary and artistic quality
4. they point out something fundamentally important to the story of world history or to its habits of mind
5. they are engaging to the heart as well as the intellect
Most of the books can be obtained at the Stillwater High School/ Middle School library, at local bookstores,
or online (i.e. Amazon.com). In many cases, I have found Amazon.com offers used versions at 50% off new
prices. In all cases, paperbacks are recommended. Where books are out of print, Amazon.com will direct
you in how to purchase these.
Format:
 The book report should be written in question and answer format.
 be about 4 - 6 typed pages in length
 Times New Roman font, font size 12, 1-inch margins
 double-spaced throughout (even between questions)
 have a cover page – use your selection title as your paper title
 use proper grammar.
The following are two distinct book report question forms. You will answer one of them. Choose the
correct one.
 If you read a book from section A of the reading list answer the questions from question form A
 If you read a book from section B of the reading list answer the questions from question form B
QUESTION FORM A
Thoroughly answer the following questions. Begin with the question # and the complete question.
Background of the author:
1. Give a brief biographical sketch of the author – include professional qualifications.
2. Why did the author write the book (What was their motivation)?
3. When and where was the book written? Is there anything historically about that time period or place that may affect the
judgments of the book?
4. Is there a definite viewpoint or bias expressed? Explain.
5. Which category applies to this book? - a fictional account of an historical event, a true story, an eye-witness or
autobiographical account, a work of fiction based on general/historical information, or an historical monograph? Why?
Setting:
6. Describe the historical and geographical setting?
7. Discuss important world history events that surround or influence this story? You will very likely have to do some
historical research.
Summarize:
8. What is the story, in brief?
Application:
9. What do you think can be learned in terms of world history and culture from reading this book?
Evaluation:
10. What part of the book, or quotation from the book, will be indelibly etched in your mind and heart?
11. What historical or human connections did the book help to make for you with other places and peoples, and other times?
12. What makes this story part of all of our histories and of your life today? What makes it a “classic”?
Each of the above questions should be discussed in at least a paragraph. Try not to be vague. Use specific parts of the book to explain
your points, and give a complete, specific and detailed picture of the historical context. In other words, don’t just say “Western Europe
during the Renaissance.” Give definite dates, places, dynasties or epochs, events in that dynasty and so on that relate to the material in
the book.
I may decide to share your reports with your classmates for their enlightenment.
Due Date: Friday September 14, 2012
QUESTION FORM B
Thoroughly answer the following questions. Begin with the question # and the complete question.
Background of the author:
1. Give a brief biographical sketch of the author – include professional qualifications.
2. Why did the author write the book (What was their motivation)?
3. When and where was the book written? Is there anything historically about that time period or place that may affect the
judgments of the book?
4. Is there a definite viewpoint or bias expressed? Explain.
5. Prior to writing your report, review at least two book reviews of this work. Are the opinions favorable or not? Explain.
Setting:
6. Describe the historical and geographical setting/scope of the book.
7. Discuss important world history events that surround or influence this book. You will very likely have to do some
historical research.
Summarize:
8. What is the book about? What are the main points of the authors research/argument, in brief?
Application:
9. What do you think can be learned in terms of world history and culture from reading this book?
Evaluation:
10. What significant part of the book, or quotation from the book do you find particularly memorable or enlightening? Why?
11. What historical or human connections did the book help to make for you with other places and peoples, and other times?
12. Do you find this book to have been well-written and researched? Would you recommend it to others who are interested
in world history? Explain.
Each of the above questions should be discussed in at least a paragraph. Try not to be vague. Use specific parts of the book to explain
your points, and give a complete, specific and detailed picture of the historical context. In other words, don’t just say “Western Europe
during the Renaissance.” Give definite dates, places, dynasties or epochs, events in that dynasty and so on that relate to the material in
the book.
I may decide to share your reports with your classmates for their enlightenment.
Due Date: Friday September 14, 2012
Section A - Title Choices
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon translated and edited by Ivan Morris. This book is one of the great classics of
Japanese literature and the most detailed source of factual material on life in 11th century Japan during the Heian period. It is also a
work of great literary beauty, full of lively insights, humor and subtle impressions of a curt lady who, a thousand years ago, kept a
diary.
Still Life With Rice by Helie Lee. In this radiant memoir of her grandmother’s life, Helie Lee, a first generation American of
Korean descent, illuminates the intricate and powerful experiences of her Korean grandmother who lived through Japanese occupation
of Korea, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the modernization of her country and emigration to America. Writing in her
grandmother’s voice, Helie Lee interprets issues that are both strangely Korean, and yet fundamentally our own; the complex nature of
family relations, the impact of social and political upheaval on an individual, the rapidly changing lives of women in this century, the
horrors of war, the loss of loved ones, the courage of survival, and the meaning of humanity.
*DaddyJi by Ved Mehta. This book is Ved Mehta’s biography of his father, a public health official in colonial India. It
chronicles both the imperial experience of millions of peoples around the world and the transition from tradition to modernity. A
series of vivid vignettes highlights the encroachments of western values and customs on this Indian family and the subtle changes that
take place when the lure of western ways infects the traditional family. It is an emotionally engaging portrait of an individual who
successfully made the enormous journey across cultures and time, from old to modern and from purely Indian to worldly.
*A Daughter of Han by Ida Pruitt. What began as author’s Ida Pruitt’s curiosity of the old customs of Chinese families in
childbirth, marriage and death ended in this meticulous, touching and rich oral history of Ning Lao, a Chinese “everywoman” who
lived from 1867 to 1938. It is the story of living and surviving in a weak and devastated China during the latter part of the 19th century
and the early 20th century. In this story, Ning Lao emerges as both an oppressed citizen and stoic observer, gossip, and chronicler of
history and life.
Don’t Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart by Elvia Alvarado. This book presents the life
story of Elvia Alvarado, a Honduran activist for social change, especially in agrarian reform in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Stereotypes
about poor, ignorant, pathetic peasants are severely challenged in this book. Though Elvia has only a formal education of second
grade, her wisdom, intelligence, courage and human dignity stand out through the chapters of her life. The book teaches much about
social, economic and cultural conditions in a poor, Latin American society, the dynamics of change, and the relationship between rich
and poor, western and non-western.
*Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya. This book brings beauty and meaning to peasant life and poverty. This is a story
set in rural India as modern industry comes to a town and community. Through the eyes of Rukmani, an Indian woman, the lives of
many Indians and peasants the world over, especially as they face transition to modernity, are traced. The rich imagery of this book
brings understandings, not judgments about Indian life. It is a story of courage, hope, love and land.
Family by PaChin (Ba Jin). The author is one of China’s most popular writers of fiction this century. His story is a poignant
personal account of the injustice and oppression found in the traditional Chinese family, the need to overthrow the yoke of oppression
and the accompanying Confucian ideology which allowed it to endure since ancient times. Written in 1931, the book reflects the
period around the world of international anarchism (i.e. Russian populism) and reflects a time of great upheaval in China. The Qing
dynasty had been overthrown, World War I had ended, the Russian Revolution consummated, the call for science and democracy had
been firefly introduced by Sun Yet-sen, and Chiang K’ai-shek and the warlords were fighting for control of China. In the Kao family,
“Third Younger Brother” emerges as the novel’s hero of the rebellion.
Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz. Midaq Alley is Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s engaging account of the residents of a
Cairo ally in the early 1940’s. Intended as a “slice of life” portal of the lower reaches of Cairo society, it follows a group of vividly
drawn characters whose relationships highlight the full range of human emotions. The characters in the book make the story somewhat
ahistorical form the point of view that little can be learned about Egyptian attitudes toward colonialism, nationalism, the impact of
World War II, the effects of urbanization, the influence of Islam, or other themes relevant to time or place. Yet, this in itself might tell
a useful story in that much of the world lives in a day-to-day existence largely oblivious to the larger social, economic, and political
forces that swirl around it.
*Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart is the story of Okonkwo, an Ibo villager in Nigeria, who lived
during the time of the coming of the Europeans. A hero in the Greek tragic sense, Okonkwo is powerful and strong, yet he struggles
with human emotions and will, as well as the power of the gods. The great strength and beauty of the book is its description of
traditional Africa village life in a way that makes its institutions and traditions civil, human, and understandable and interrelated.
Things began to “fallapart” for Okonkwo before the Europeans arrive, making the theme of change a human one rather than one
imposed from outside.
Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh. Having lived through the riots resulting from the partition of India and Pakistan in
1947, Khushwant Singh has written a novel that gives the reader an understanding of what Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs must have felt
– such horror that only a master could capture it. Starting with a powerful description of Indian village life, the story progresses to one
where safety in this small village in 1947 becomes almost impossible as trains traveling in both directions cross the Mano Majra
Bridge between the two countries.
I, Rigoberta Menchu, An Indian Woman in Guatemala edited by Elisabeth Burgos-Wright. This book is a
fascinating and moving description of the culture of an entire people as told through the eyes of Rigoberta Menchu, a young
Guatemalan woman who became famous as a national leader. Faced with gross injustice and exploitation, Rigoberta decided at an
early age to learn Spanish and turned to catechist activity as an expression of social revolt as well as deep religious belief. After the
coming to power of the Lucas Garcia regime in 1978, her father and mother were all killed in separate incidents of savagery on the
part of the army. Recently, this book has become controversial due to the fact that its authenticity has been challenged. If you choose
to read this book, make sure to investigate these challenges.
*Memories of Silk and Straw – A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan by Dr. Junichi Saga. Every day after finishing
work in the clinic of the small town of Tsuchirura, Dr. Saga went around the town visiting one elderly person after with a portable tape
recorder in his medical bag. The people he talked to came from all walks of life: day laborers, tradesmen, farmers, fishermen,
gangsters and geisha. They spoke candidly about the realities of traditional Japanese life. In the memories of these people are the sole
surviving stories of the end of the feudal period in 1868 and the alteration in less than half a century of Japan from feudal to modern.
The interaction of people and their environment makes this portrait of Japan unique. No one can read this book without being touched
by how the Japanese dealt with the problem of unwanted children and how, amidst poverty and unhappiness, there was a strange kind
of serenity, strength and community that seems entirely lost in modern life.
*One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. No book conveys the horrors of the Stalinist era in
Russian history better than this little book written by the giant of contemporary Russian protest literature. Ivan’s one day in a slave
labor camp in Siberia becomes one of hundreds and thousands of days in the lives of millions of Russians who lived and died in the
archipelago of labor camps that were strung across Siberia. It is a graphic picture of a slow and demoralizing holocaust. It is a moving
tribute to the Russian will to prevail over relentless dehumanization by fellow Russians.
The Life and Death of Carolina Maria de Jesus by Robert M. Levine and Jose Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy. This
book provides the world history student an opportunity to engage in issues of gender, race and poverty in the developing world
through the experience of one of Brazil’s most remarkable women.
Fantasia – An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar. This is a translation of one volume of a quartet by Algerian born
author, Assia Djebar. The story is told from the perspective of a lady of the Harem during the French occupation of Algeria beginning
in 1827. The story ends in the 20th century after Algerian independence and the return of the remains to Algiers of the hero of the 19th
century resistance movement, Abd al-Qadir.
Cartuch and My Mother’s Hands by Nellie Campobello, translated by Doris Meyer and Irene Mathews. These
two stories are autobiographical evocations of the violence and turmoil of the Revolution in Mexico told through the eyes of a child.
In the writing of these stories, the author, along with Diego Rivera and others, played an important part in Mexico’s post-revolutionary
cultural renaissance during the 1920’s and 1930’s.
*Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. This novel offers an interpretation of the history of technology and tackles the alleged problem of an
ecological crisis. It challenges the notion that science, technology and invention are positive forces in history. These views are
articulated by Quinn’s hero, a gorilla named “Ishmael.” The main point boils down to humanity’s having taken a technological turn
that leads to a dead end. The big mistake that humans made, according to Quinn, was in buying into the Neolithic Revolution. All the
other changes, including the Industrial Revolution, are determined by that wrong turn.
*The Adventures of Ibn Battuta by Ross Dunn The story told by a remarkable Muslim traveler intimate with the court life
and politics of the Arab world. Battuta was a contemporary of Marco Polo.
*The Travels of Marco Polo by Lathen. The incredible tales of this 13th century traveler and his journeys form Italy to China
and back.
The Secrets of the Talking Jaguar by Martin Prechtel. Martin Prechtel, son of a Swiss father and Indian mother, grew up on
an Indian reservation in New Mexico before moving to Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala for over a decade. In this book he reaches deep
into the spiritual soul and history of the Maya people and their Shamans. Beautifully and eloquently related in the book are ideas like,
it’s good for each person in the village to be in debt, economically and spiritually, to every other person in the village; that it is good to
weep generously when a human being dies so he or she can make it all the way across to the other side; that it is essential to ask
permission for every bit of iron and jade or silver or corn that we steal from the earth; and that it is good to know that most of life is
maintenance – of roof, leafed huts and our own connections with the spirits. In this book you will learn much about the Mayan culture
and Shamanism, which is the ritual religion of all early societies across Asia and the Americans, and which has mixed and fused with
many elements of traditional religions in today’s world.
*Germinal by Emile Zola. The thirteenth novel in Émile Zola’s great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at
the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity’s capacity for compassion and hope. Etienne Lantier, an
unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le
Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, and in debt, unable to feed and clothe
their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could
mean starvation or salvation for all.
*Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Novel by Boris Pasternak, published in Italy in 1957. This epic tale about the effects of
the Russian Revolution and its aftermath on a bourgeois family was not published in the Soviet Union until 1987. One of the results of
its publication in the West was Pasternak's complete rejection by Soviet authorities; when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1958 he was compelled to decline it. The book quickly became an international best-seller. Dr. Yury Zhivago,
Pasternak's alter ego, is a poet, philosopher, and physician whose life is disrupted by the war and by his love for Lara, the wife of a
revolutionary. His artistic nature makes him vulnerable to the brutality and harshness of the Bolsheviks; wandering throughout
Russia, he is unable to take control of his fate, and dies in utter poverty. The poems he leaves behind constitute some of the most
beautiful writing in the novel.
*Red Azalea by Anchee Min. This is an honest and frightening memoir of growing up in Communist China during the Cultural
Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Min describes a systematically deprived Shanghai childhood (the family was forced into
successively meaner quarters); school days spent as a member of the Red Guard, spouting the words of Chairman Mao and being
forced to publicly betray her favorite teacher; and later teen years on a work farm in order to become a peasant because peasants were
the only true vanguard of the revolution. The farm years, with their backbreaking workdays and heartbreaking, lonely nights,
exemplify the grinding insanity of the Cultural Revolution, the terror and dehumanization it inflicted on ordinary Chinese. Eventually,
Min was tapped by the party to be in the propaganda film Red Azalea, during the making of which she suffered more humiliation and
political subterfuge. What is so extraordinary is that Min managed to keep a tight hold on her spirit. Her autobiography is not just a
coming-of-age story or history lesson; it is a tale of inner strength and courage that transcends time and place.
*The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. This story introduces us to a circle of friends in England during the
French Revolution who, for the sport of it, travel to France in disguise to rescue French aristocrats from the certain death of the
guillotine, right under the noses of their captors. The identity of their leader, the Scarlet Pimpernel, is a guarded secret but one that
interests more and more people as more and more French aristocrats are discovered in safety in England. Constant danger, wit,
romance, and adventure befall the reader at every turn.
*Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King. Filippo Brunelleschi's design for the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in
Florence remains one of the most towering achievements of Renaissance architecture. Completed in 1436, the dome remains a
remarkable feat of design and engineering. Its span of more than 140 feet exceeds St Paul's in London and St Peter's in Rome, and
even outdoes the Capitol in Washington, D.C., making it the largest dome ever constructed using bricks and mortar. The story of its
creation and its brilliant but "hot-tempered" creator is told in Ross King's delightful Brunelleschi's Dome. Both dome and architect
offer King plenty of rich material. The story of the dome goes back to 1296, when work began on the cathedral, but it was only in
1420, when Brunelleschi won a competition over his bitter rival Lorenzo Ghiberti to design the daunting cupola, that work began in
earnest. King weaves an engrossing tale from the political intrigue, personal jealousies, dramatic setbacks, and sheer inventive
brilliance that led to the paranoid Filippo, "who was so proud of his inventions and so fearful of plagiarism," finally seeing his dome
completed only months before his death. King argues that it was Brunelleschi's improvised brilliance in solving the problem of
suspending the enormous cupola in bricks and mortar (painstakingly detailed with precise illustrations) that led him to "succeed in
performing an engineering feat whose structural daring was without parallel." He tells a compelling, informed story, ranging from
discussions of the construction of the bricks, mortar, and marble that made up the dome, to its subsequent use as a scientific
instrument by the Florentine astronomer Paolo Toscanelli.
*The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan. In its rich character portrayals and sensitivity to the nuances of mother-daughter
relationships, Tan's new novel is the real successor to, and equal of, The Joy Luck Club. This luminous and gripping book
demonstrates enhanced tenderness and wisdom, however; it carries the texture of real life and reflects the paradoxes historical events
can produce. Ruth Young is a 40-ish ghostwriter in San Francisco who periodically goes mute, a metaphorical indication of her
inability to express her true feelings to the man she lives with, Art Kamen, a divorced father of two teenage daughters. Ruth's inability
to talk is subtly echoed in the story of her mother LuLing's early life in China, which forms the long middle section of the novel.
Overbearing, accusatory, darkly pessimistic, LuLing has always been a burden to Ruth. Now, at 77, she has Alzheimer's, but luckily
she had recorded in a diary the extraordinary events of her childhood and youth in a small village in China during the years that
included the discovery nearby of the bones of Peking Man, the Japanese invasion, the birth of the Republic and the rise of
Communism. LuLing was raised by a nursemaid called Precious Auntie, the daughter of a famous bonesetter. Once beautiful, Precious
Auntie's face was burned in a suicide attempt, her mouth sealed with scar tissue. When LuLing eventually learns the secrets of
Precious Auntie's tragic life, she is engulfed by shame and guilt. These emotions are echoed by Ruth when she reads her own mother's
revelations, and she finally understands why LuLing thought herself cursed. Tan conjures both settings with resonant detail,
juxtaposing scenes of rural domestic life in a China still ruled by superstition and filial obedience, and of upscale California half a
century later. The novel exhibits a poignant clarity as it investigates the dilemma of adult children who must become caretakers of
their elderly parents, a situation Tan articulates with integrity and exemplary empathy for both generations.
*The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela. First published in 1915, Azuela's groundbreaking novel about a Mexican peasant who
becomes a revolutionary leader is now being issued in a revised translation with a set of illuminating footnotes (notes and revisions by
Beth E. Jurgensen). Demetrio Macias is the protagonist who joins the rebels in their efforts to overthrow Mexico's corrupt dictator,
Porfirio Diaz, and Macias's brash approach to military tactics speeds his rise through the ranks. His background is articulated by
journalist Luis Cervantes, who abandons the government to aid the rebels as he provides background on Macias in the early chapters.
While the new general's forces engage in a series of hit-and-run battles with Federal troops, Azuela adds two romantic subplots, one
about a difficult young woman named Pintada, who bonds with one of the other generals in the company; the other involves Camilla, a
peasant girl who expresses her ardor for Cervantes early on, but ends up falling for Macias. The battle scenes are stirring, if somewhat
underdeveloped, and Azuela highlights the conflict with a cameo appearance by Pancho Villa as the tide begins to turn against the
rebels. Overall, the story is too incomplete to be labeled a classic by modern standards. What makes the book memorable is its
portrayal of Macias as an archetype of Mexico's national character, as the peasant expresses his ongoing love for the process and
pageantry of the revolution.
*The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes. First translated into English more than a quarter-century ago, Fuentes's
acclaimed novel about modern Mexico has since gone through nearly 30 printings. The novel opens with Artemio Cruz, a fictional
newspaper owner and land baron, on his deathbed. It plunges us into his thoughts as he segues from the past to his increasingly
disoriented present. Drawn as a tragic figure, Cruz fights bravely during the Mexican Revolution but in the process loses his idealism-and the only woman who ever loved him. He marries the daughter of a hacienda owner and, in the opportunistic, postwar climate, he
uses her family connections and money to amass an ever-larger fortune. Cocky, audacious, corrupt, Cruz, on another level, represents
the paradoxes of recent Mexican history.
Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides On January 28,
1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue
513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp, among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. A recent prison
massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in the Philippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time to plan the complex
operation. In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds
alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive,
defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring,
Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkable mission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account of enormous
bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most trying conditions.
*Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of
History by Giles Milton The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago--remote,
tranquil, and now largely ignored. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, Run's harvest of nutmeg turned it into the
most lucrative of the Spice Islands, precipitating a fierce and bloody battle between the all-powerful Dutch East India Company and a
small band of ragtag British adventurers led by the intrepid Nathaniel Courthope. The outcome of the fighting was one of the most
spectacular deals in history: Britain ceded Run to Holland, but in return was given another small island, Manhattan. A brilliant
adventure story of unthinkable hardship and savagery, the navigation of uncharted waters, and the exploitation of new worlds,
Nathaniel's Nutmeg is a remarkable chapter in the history of the colonial powers.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie From Publishers Weekly
The Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong altered Chinese history in the 1960s and '70s, forcibly sending hundreds of
thousands of Chinese intellectuals to peasant villages for "re-education." This moving, often wrenching short novel by a writer who
was himself re-educated in the '70s tells how two young men weather years of banishment, emphasizing the power of literature to free
the mind. Sijie's unnamed 17-year-old protagonist and his best friend, Luo, are bourgeois doctors' sons, and so condemned to serve
four years in a remote mountain village, carrying pails of excrement daily up a hill. Only their ingenuity helps them to survive. The
two friends are good at storytelling, and the village headman commands them to put on "oral cinema shows" for the villagers, reciting
the plots and dialogue of movies. When another city boy leaves the mountains, the friends steal a suitcase full of forbidden books he
has been hiding, knowing he will be afraid to call the authorities. Enchanted by the prose of a host of European writers, they dare to
tell the story of The Count of Monte Cristo to the village tailor and to read Balzac to his shy and beautiful young daughter. Luo, who
adores the Little Seamstress, dreams of transforming her from a simple country girl into a sophisticated lover with his foreign tales. He
succeeds beyond his expectations, but the result is not what he might have hoped for, and leads to an unexpected, droll and poignant
conclusion. The warmth and humor of Sijie's prose and the clarity of Rilke's translation distinguish this slim first novel, a wonderfully
human tale.
Life along the Silk Road by Susan Whitfield. With a nod to the storytelling traditions of the ancient central Asian bazaars that
it describes, Life Along the Silk Road is a wily half-breed of a history book. Mixing narrative and historic minutiae, each chapter
introduces an inhabitant of the Silk Road at the end of the 10th century. Following the lives and stories of the Merchant, the Soldier,
the Monk, the Courtesan, and others, Susan Whitfield brings the dramatic history of pre-Islamic central Asia down to a human scale,
fleshing out the battles of conquest and trade with the details of everyday life.
Whitfield is the director of the British Library-sponsored Dunhuang Project, which makes a remarkable collection of ancient
Silk Road manuscripts, including those acquired by legendary explorer Sir Aurel Stein, available on the Internet. Her knowledge of
this treasure trove of primary material shows throughout the book. What is the choicest cut of meat from a camel? The hump. The
Chinese recipe for curing possession by demons? It involves a number of ingredients, including a broiled centipede, with all the legs
removed. What ancient Silk Road town was famous for its dancing girls? Read and see.
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton.
A beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled
and changing South Africa of the 1940s. The book is written with such keen empathy and understanding that to read it is to share fully
in the gravity of the characters' situations. It both touches your heart deeply and inspires a renewed faith in the dignity of mankind.
Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic tale, passionately African, timeless and universal, and beyond all, selfless.
Section B - Title Choices
*Mythistory by William H. McNeill. This book is more of a monograph than a story or literary classic. It is a contemporary
world historian’s proposition that all of history is part myth, and that mythistory derives from a deep-seated need in man to explain,
understand, and bequeath his past to the future.
The Alchemy of Happiness by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali (1058 – 1111). al-Ghazzali was on of the most
important religious figures in Islamic history. He is particularly noted for his brilliant synthesis of mysticism and traditional Sunni
Islam. The book was written toward the end of the al-Ghazzali’s life and provides a succinct introduction to both the theory and
practice of Sufism (Islamic mysticism). It also offers many insights into traditional Muslim society and religion.
*Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill. In this book, contemporary world historian William McNeill takes up the general
question of the effects of plagues on world history and the more specific analysis of the plague that traveled across Asia in the Middle
Ages and the effects of disease diffusion during the great encounter with the Americans.
The Great Pandemic by Alfred Crosby. Historian, Crosby examines the ferocity of the world plague 1918 – 1919. This plague
killed more people than any pandemic in history and more than all of the casualties of World War I.
Cross-Cultural Trade in World History by Philip Curtin. This study examines trade between peoples of differing cultures
throughout the course of world history. Curtin’s discussion encompasses a broad and diverse group of trading relationships like the
Mediterranean trade with China, the Asian trade in the East, the European entry in the trade with maritime Asia and son on.
*The Structure of Big History: From the Big Bang Until Today by Fred Spier. This book is the best known of a new
genre of world history that attempts to join the social and natural sciences into one historical narrative. The book gives a
straightforward account of the latest scientific views on the history of the universe, the solar system, earth, life and human kind. It
investigates the origins of humankind, the rise of agriculture and the emergence of early states.
The Hummingbird and the Hawk: the Conquest and Sovereignty in the Valley of Mexico: 1503 –1541 by R.C.
Padden. This book is narrative history of the Aztecs from the inception of the Empire to the post-Spanish conquest. It espouses a
particular point of view that is part of the contemporary controversy surrounding the 500-year celebration of the Columbian
Encounter. It contrasts, for instance, with K. Sale’s views in Conquest of Paradise though some find it a balanced consideration of
Aztec and Spanish motives that are currently under attack in “politically correct” academia. It is an engaging story of the conquest
from both sides.
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney Mintz. This is not literature but rather a
detailed and fascinating study of how the consumer appetite for one product can alter world history, institutions and society. Sugar
becomes a case study for the development of capitalism, slavery, the plantation complex, migration and ecology.
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. Frantz Fanon’s classic “handbook for the black revolution,” published in 1963,
is valuable both as insight into the process of decolonization and as analysis of what went wrong in newly independent African
countries. Fanon’s thinking was influenced both by Marxism and negritude. His description of tactics by which revolutionaries can
channel their aggression and discover a communal destiny, had a strong influence on the Black Power movement in the US in the late
1960’s. When reading this book, it is interesting to contrast Fanon’s response to colonialism in Africa with Gandhi’s satyagraha
movement in India.
*The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels and the Little Red Book or The Sayings of Mao
Tse-tung (aka. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung). These are the revolutionary handbooks that influenced and
guided Communist revolutionaries the world over from Fidel Castro to Che Gueverra, Chou En-lai and radical Americans of the 60’s.
They are remarkable studies in what Marx and Mao really did say that so influenced the world.
The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Jonathan Spence. In 1577, the Jesuit priest, Matteo Ricci, set out from Italy to
bring the Christian faith and Western thought to the Ming dynasty in China. In order to convert the Chinese, Matteo Ricci tried to
impress them with his ability to memorize the Bible, thus challenging the abilities of Confucian scholars to remember vast amounts of
Confucian doctrine. To do so, Ricci created four images derived from events in the Bible and others from a book on the art of memory
that Ricci wrote in Chinese and circulated among members of the Ming dynasty’s elite. Jonathan Spence, the foremost historical
raconteur of imperial China, has written a compelling narrative about Ricci’s remarkable life and a significant history of the world of
counter-Reformation Europe and Ming China.
*The World and a Very Small Place in Africa by Donald R. Wright – This fascinating work shows how global events
and world systems have affected people’s lives for the past eight centuries in Niumi, a small area at the mouth of the Gambia River in
West Africa. Topics addressed include slavery and the diaspora, colonial policy and the changing role of women.
* A Vietcong Memoir – An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath by Truon Nhu Tang. This
memoir begins in the final years of French rule in Vietnam’s extended “decolonization” process. The author grew up in privileged
circumstances in French Indochina, going to French schools and engaging Chinese maidservants. However, as the French power in
Indochina began to erode, he became a revolutionary. Inspired by Ho Chi Minh whom he met in Paris, he became a revolutionary –
founder of the National Liberation Front, Minister of Justice for the Vietcong Provisional Revolution Government, and one of the
most determined adversaries of the U.S. during the war, Truon is able to tell the political story of what Vietnam itself thought it was
fighting for. At the end of the war, he describes a reunified Vietnam that did not – could not – fulfill his dream. The new Vietnam was
as unjust as the old. In 1978, Truon climbed aboard a ramshackle boat and left the shores of the country he fought to create. He
became one of thousands of boat people who eventually landed on American shores.
*The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy. A masterful, albeit somewhat controversial assessment of the
rivalry for world power over the past 500 years. This book reads like a more traditional history book rather than a novel. Note
Kennedy’s conclusions are particularly controversial.
*Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Fascinating perspective on the cross-cultural effects of these stimuli on world
history. In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond
convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had a head start in food
production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed writing, technology, government, and organized religion—
as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war—and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A
major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be
and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history.
*The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History by John Robert McNeill and William Hardy McNeill.
The spread of agriculture, the growth of world religions and the rise of European civilization to world dominance are some of the
themes explored in this engrossing addition to the distinctive McNeill brand of broad-brush macro-history. The motor of history this
time is the growing "web" of interactions-weaving together hunter-gatherer bands, then civilizations and finally the whole world-by
which people, goods, diseases and ideas spread. As it binds ever more people ever more tightly, the web both brings them into conflict
and lets them share and build on each other's achievements.
*The World That Trade Created by Kenneth Pomeranz. This is a very entertaining overview of the development of world
trade and world economy. The short essays (3 to 4 pages each) each cover a different topic and are far too short to become boring. If
anything some of the chapters are too short. The authors take an approach that is refreshingly not euro-centric, with many chapters
covering the Far East and South America. In fact the authors' cynicism and disapproval of the hypocrisy of European colonial
expansion is a recurring theme throughout the book. The book covers such varied topics as the connection between tea and the drug
trade; the adoption of international time zones; piracy; the origin of coffee; and the impact of slave trade on the industrial revolution.
The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions by Karen Armstrong. Having already
recounted "a history of God," the redoubtable Armstrong here narrates the evolution of the religious traditions of the world from their
births to their maturity. In her typical magisterial fashion, she chronicles these tales in dazzling prose with remarkable depth and
judicious breadth. Taking the Axial Age, which spans roughly 900 B.C.E. to 200 B.C.E., as her focal point, Armstrong examines the
ways that specific religious traditions from Buddhism and Confucianism to Taoism and Judaism responded to the various cultural
forces they faced during this period. Overall, Armstrong observes, violence, political disruption and religious intolerance dominated
Axial Age societies, so Axial religions responded by exalting compassion, love and justice over selfishness and hatred. Thus, the
central Buddhist and Jain practice of ahimsa, doing no harm, developed in India in reaction to the self-centeredness of Hindu ritual,
and Hebrew prophets such as Amos proclaimed that justice and mercy toward neighbors offered the only correct way of walking with
God. Accounts of the world's religions often present them as discrete entities developing apart from each other in a vacuum.
Armstrong's magnificent accomplishment offers us an account of a violent time much like ours, when religious impulses in various
locations developed practices of justice and love.
*Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. In his Pulitzer Prize–winning bestseller Guns,
Germs, and Steel, geographer Diamond laid out a grand view of the organic roots of human civilizations in flora, fauna, climate and
geology. That vision takes on apocalyptic overtones in this fascinating comparative study of societies that have, sometimes fatally,
undermined their own ecological foundations. Diamond examines storied examples of human economic and social collapse, and even
extinction, including Easter Island, classical Mayan civilization and the Greenland Norse. He explores patterns of population growth,
overfarming, overgrazing and overhunting, often abetted by drought, cold, rigid social mores and warfare, that lead inexorably to
vicious circles of deforestation, erosion and starvation prompted by the disappearance of plant and animal food sources. Extending his
treatment to contemporary environmental trouble spots, from Montana to China to Australia, he finds today's global, technologically
advanced civilization very far from solving the problems that plagued primitive, isolated communities in the remote past. At times
Diamond comes close to a counsel of despair when contemplating the environmental havoc engulfing our rapidly industrializing
planet, but he holds out hope at examples of sustainability from highland New Guinea's age-old but highly diverse and efficient
agriculture to Japan's rigorous program of forest protection and, less convincingly, in recent green consumerism initiatives. Diamond
is a brilliant expositor of everything from anthropology to zoology, providing a lucid background of scientific lore to support a
stimulating, incisive historical account of these many declines and falls. Readers will find his book an enthralling, and disturbing,
reminder of the indissoluble links that bind humans to nature.
*Salt: A World History – by Mark Kurlansky. Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the
World, here turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has
shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance
so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured
empires, and inspired revolutions. Populated by colorful characters and filled with an unending series of fascinating details,
Kurlansky's kaleidoscopic history is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.
*A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and The Renaissance by William Manchester. It speaks to the
failure of medieval Europe, writes popular historian William Manchester, that "in the year 1500, after a thousand years of neglect, the
roads built by the Romans were still the best on the continent." European powers were so absorbed in destroying each other and in
suppressing peasant revolts and religious reform that they never quite got around to realizing the possibilities of contemporary
innovations in public health, civil engineering, and other peaceful pursuits. Instead, they waged war in faraway lands, created and lost
fortunes, and squandered millions of lives. For all the wastefulness of medieval societies, however, Manchester notes, the era created
the foundation for the extraordinary creative explosion of the Renaissance. Drawing on a cast of characters numbering in the
hundreds, Manchester does a solid job of reconstructing the medieval world, although some scholars may disagree with his
interpretations.
* Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen. A
superb recreation of Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan's obsessive 16th-century quest, an ill-fated journey that altered
Europe's perception of the planet: "It was a dream as old as the imagination: a voyage to the ends of the earth.... Mariners feared they
could literally sail over the edge of the world." In 2001, Bergreen traveled the South American strait that bears Magellan's name, and
he adds to that firsthand knowledge satellite images of Magellan's route plus international archival research. His day-by-day account
incorporates the testimony of sailors, Francisco Albo's pilot's log and the eyewitness accounts of Venetian scholar Antonio Pigafetta,
who was on the journey. Magellan's mission for Spain was to find a water route to the fabled Spice Islands, and in 1519, the Armada
de Molucca (five ships and some 260 sailors) sailed into the pages of history. Many misfortunes befell the expedition, including the
brutal killing of Magellan in the Philippines. Three years later, one weather-beaten ship, "a vessel of desolation and anguish," returned
to Spain with a skeleton crew of 18, yet "what a story those few survivors had to tell-a tale of mutiny, of orgies on distant shores, and
of the exploration of the entire globe," providing proof that the world was round. Illuminating the Age of Discovery, Bergreen writes
this powerful tale of adventure with a strong presence and rich detail.
*Genghis Khan and The Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. Apart from its inapt title, Genghis Khan
dies rather early on in this account and many of the battles are led by his numerous offspring. This book is a successful account of the
century of turmoil brought to the world by a then little-known nation of itinerant hunters. In researching this book, Weatherford
(Savages and Civilization), a professor of anthropology at Macalaster College, traveled thousands of miles, many on horseback,
tracing Genghis Khan's steps into places unseen by Westerners since the khan's death and employing what he calls an "archeology of
movement." Weatherford knows the story of the medieval Mongol conquests is gripping enough not to need superfluous
embellishments" the personalities and the wars they waged provide plenty of color and suspense. In just 25 years, in a manner that
inspired the blitzkrieg, the Mongols conquered more lands and people than the Romans had in over 400 years. Without pausing for too
many digressions, Weatherford's brisk description of the Mongol military campaign and its revolutionary aspects analyzes the rout of
imperial China, a siege of Baghdad and the razing of numerous European castles. On a smaller scale, Weatherford also devotes much
attention to dismantling our notions of Genghis Khan as a brute. By his telling, the great general was a secular but faithful Christian, a
progressive free trader, a regretful failed parent and a loving if polygamous husband. With appreciative descriptions of the sometimes
tender tyrant, this chronicle supplies just enough personal and world history to satisfy any reader.
The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk
In a phrase coined by Captain Arthur Connolly of the East India Company before he was beheaded in Bokhara for spying in 1842, a
"Great Game" was played between Tsarist Russia and Victorian England for supremacy in Central Asia. At stake was the security of
India, key to the wealth of the British Empire. When play began early in the 19th century, the frontiers of the two imperial powers lay
two thousand miles apart, across vast deserts and almost impassable mountain ranges; by the end, only 20 miles separated the two
rivals. Peter Hopkirk, a former reporter for The Times of London with wide experience of the region, tells an extraordinary story of
ambition, intrigue, and military adventure. His sensational narrative moves at breakneck pace, yet even as he paints his colorful
characters--tribal chieftains, generals, spies, Queen Victoria herself--he skillfully provides a clear overview of the geographical and
diplomatic framework. The Great Game was Russia's version of America's "Manifest Destiny" to dominate a continent, and Hopkirk is
careful to explain Russian viewpoints as fully as those of the British. The story ends with the fall of Tsarist Russia in 1917, but the
demise of the Soviet Empire (hastened by a decade of bloody fighting in Afghanistan) gives it new relevance, as world peace and
stability are again threatened by tensions in this volatile region of great mineral wealth and strategic significance.
*When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433
by Louise Levathes. Levathes, a former staff writer for National Geographic , here tells the story of seven epic voyages made by
unique junk armadas during the reign of the Chinese emperor Zhu Di. These "treasure ships" under the command of the eunuch
admiral Zheng He traded in porcelain, silk, lacquerware and fine-art objects; they sailed from Korea and Japan throughout the Malay
archipelago and India to East Africa, and possibly as far away as Australia. Levathes argues that China could have employed its navy-with some 3000 vessels, the largest in history until the present century--to establish a great colonial empire 100 years before the age
of European exploration and expansion; instead, the Chinese abruptly dismantled their navy. Levathes describes the political
showdown that led to this perverse turn of events, revolving around a clash between the powerful eunuch class and Confucian scholarofficials. Her scholarly study includes a section on the construction of the seagoing junks (the largest had nine masts, was 400 feet
long and would have dwarfed Columbus's ships) and provides a look into court life in the Ming dynasty, particularly the relationship
between the emperor, his eunuch and his concubines.
* The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L.
Friedman The World Is Flat is Thomas L. Friedman’s account of the great changes taking place in our time, as lightning-swift
advances in technology and communications put people all over the globe in touch as never before—creating an explosion of wealth
in India and China, and challenging the rest of us to run even faster just to stay in place… drawn from Friedman’s travels around the
world and across the American heartland—from anyplace where the flattening of the world is being felt.In The World Is Flat,
Friedman at once shows “how and why globalization has now shifted into warp drive” (Robert Wright, Slate) and brilliantly
demystifies the new flat world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering scene unfolding before their eyes.
With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, he explains how the flattening of the world
happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; how
governments and societies can, and must, adapt; and why terrorists want to stand in the way. More than ever, The World Is Flat is an
essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.
Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present by Michael B. Oren. This engrossing,
informative, and frequently surprising survey of U.S. involvement in the Middle East over the past 230 years is particularly timely.
Oren, a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and New Republic, illustrates that American interests have
frequently combined elements of romanticism, religious fervency, and hardheaded power politics. In the early nineteenth century,
President Jefferson, perhaps acting against his own instincts to remain aloof from the affairs of the Old World, sent the infant
American navy to confront the Barbary pirates off the coast of North Africa. Like many of our future endeavors in the region, the
results were a mixture of success, failure, and farce. Other episodes covered here that are particularly interesting include previously
obscure American efforts to locate the source of the Nile and the efforts by American missionaries to convert vast numbers of
Ottoman subjects. But Oren is at his best when describing American involvement in the twentieth century as the U.S. replaced Britain
as the dominant "imperial" power in the area. Appealing to both scholars and general readers. Jay Freeman Copyright © American
Library Association. All rights reserved
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan presents both sides of the
seemingly intractable argument over the past and future of Palestine through the eyes of an Israeli woman and Palestinian man who
try to come to grips with each other. The Palestinian was born in a house that his family was forced to leave in 1948 and the Israeli
woman's family then occupied it. It's an amazing journey for both.
The Great Warming Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations by Brian Fagan
How the earth’s previous global warming phase, from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, reshaped human societies from the Arctic to
the Sahara—a wide-ranging history with sobering lessons for our own time.
From the tenth to the fifteenth centuries the earth experienced a rise in surface temperature that changed climate worldwide—
a preview of today’s global warming. In some areas, including Western Europe, longer summers brought bountiful harvests and
population growth that led to cultural flowering. In the Arctic, Inuit and Norse sailors made cultural connections across thousands of
miles as they traded precious iron goods. Polynesian sailors, riding new wind patterns, were able to settle the remotest islands on
earth. But in many parts of the world, the warm centuries brought drought and famine. Elaborate societies in western and central
America collapsed, and the vast building complexes of Chaco Canyon and the Mayan Yucatan were left empty.
As he did in his bestselling The Little Ice Age, anthropologist and historian Brian Fagan reveals how subtle changes in the
environment had far-reaching effects on human life, in a narrative that sweeps from the Arctic ice cap to the Sahara to the Indian
Ocean. The history of the Great Warming of a half millennium ago suggests that we may yet be underestimating the power of climate
change to disrupt our lives today—and our vulnerability to drought, writes Fagan, is the “silent elephant in the room.”
The Horse, The Wheel, And Language: How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern
World By David W. Anthony.
From Publishers Weekly
In this study of language, archeology and culture, Hartwick College anthropology professor Anthony hypothesizes that a proto-IndoEuropean culture emerged in the Ponto-Caspian steppes 4,000 years ago, speaking an ur-language ancestor to the Romance, German
and Slavic family of languages, Sanskrit and modern English. Citing discoveries in the Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan made possible
only after the fall of the Iron Curtain brought together Soviet and western scientists, Anthony combines evidence from radioactive
dating, demographic analysis of migration patterns, linguistic analysis and the study of epics such as the Iliad and the Rig Veda to
substantiate his contention. Central to his thesis is the role of the horse, originally domesticated for food and first ridden to manage
herds; only later, with the development of the chariot, were they ridden during combat. Anthony provides a comprehensive, in-depth
analysis of his subject, complete with a history of relevant research over the past two centuries (including evidence and opinion that
counter his own, such as the now-discredited Aryan race hypothesis). A thorough look at the cutting edge of anthropology, Anthony's
book is a fascinating look into the origins of modern man.
*A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage.
From Publishers Weekly. Starred Review. Standage starts with a bold hypothesis—that each epoch, from the Stone Age to the present,
has had its signature beverage—and takes readers on an extraordinary trip through world history. The Economist's technology editor
has the ability to connect the smallest detail to the big picture and a knack for summarizing vast concepts in a few sentences. He
explains how, when humans shifted from hunting and gathering to farming, they saved surplus grain, which sometimes fermented into
beer. The Greeks took grapes and made wine, later borrowed by the Romans and the Christians. Arabic scientists experimented with
distillation and produced spirits, the ideal drink for long voyages of exploration. Coffee also spread quickly from Arabia to Europe,
becoming the "intellectual counterpoint to the geographical expansion of the Age of Exploration." European coffee-houses, which
functioned as "the Internet of the Age of Reason," facilitated scientific, financial and industrial cross-fertilization. In the British
industrial revolution that followed, tea "was the lubricant that kept the factories running smoothly." Finally, the rise of American
capitalism is mirrored in the history of Coca-Cola, which started as a more or less handmade medicinal drink but morphed into a
mass-produced global commodity over the course of the 20th century. In and around these grand ideas, Standage tucks some
wonderful tidbits—on the antibacterial qualities of tea, Mecca's coffee trials in 1511, Visigoth penalties for destroying vineyards—
ending with a delightful appendix suggesting ways readers can sample ancient beverages.
*The Spice Route: A History by John Keay. From Publishers Weekly
In his latest, author Keay (Last Post) explores the prominent role spices have played in the construction of the modern world, from the
development of the word itself to extensive schemes for trading it across continents to the personalities who discovered and
disseminated it, noting that "a taste for spices is responsible for the exploration of our planet." The resulting volume, culled from
historical commentaries and records, is a colorful and detailed portrait of the astonishing impact man's love for flavor had on the
earliest stages of globalization. The route by which Keay's narrative travels is seasoned with facts and anecdotes, ranging from ancient
historians' fantastic reports of men with "pendulous upper lips" and the heads of dogs-or none at all-to the Muslim invasion of India
and the Islamification of Malaysia. There is a surprising mythology surrounding the spice trade, and Keay does this angle ample
justice, citing figures such as Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta and Roman playwright Plautus. Although Keay ends his book with the grim
conclusion that the forces of globalization are to blame for the demystification and downfall of "spice," the work itself is nothing short
of zesty.
*The Origins of the Modern World by Robert B. Marks.
This clearly written and engaging book presents a global narrative of the origins of the modern world. Unlike most studies, which
assume that the rise of the West is the story of the coming of the modern world, this history, drawing upon new scholarship on Asia,
Africa, and the New World, constructs a story in which those parts of the world play major roles. Robert Marks defines the modern
world as one marked by industry, the nation state, interstate warfare, a large and growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest parts
of the world, and an escape from the biological old regime. He explains its origins by emphasizing contingencies (such as the conquest
of the New World); the broad comparability of the most advanced regions in China, India, and Europe; the reasons why England was
able to escape from common ecological constraints facing all of those regions by the 18th century; and a conjuncture of human and
natural forces that solidified a gap between the industrialized and non-industrialized parts of the world.
*After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires 1400-2000 by John Darwin.
Winner of the 2008 Wolfson History Prize for excellence in historical writing. Tamerlane, the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Manchus,
the British, the Japanese, the Nazis, and the Soviets: All built empires meant to last forever; all were to fail. But, as John Darwin
shows in this magisterial book, their empire-building created the world we know today.
From the death of Tamerlane in 1405, to America’s rise to world “hyperpower,” to the resurgence of China and India as
global economic powers, After Tamerlane is a grand historical narrative that offers a new perspective on the past, present, and future
of empires.