Overview

From celebrated Yale professor Valerie Hansen, a groundbreaking work of history showing that bold explorations and daring trade missions connected all of the world's great societies for the first time at the end of the first millennium. People often believe that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were, with just a few exceptions, lacking in any major cultural developments or geopolitical encounters, that the Europeans hadn't yet reached North America, and that the farthest feat of sea travel was the Vikings' invasion of Britain. But how, then, to explain the presence of blonde-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Could it be possible that the Vikings had found their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire? Valerie Hansen, an award-winning historian, argues that the year 1000 was the world's first point of major cultural exchange and exploration. Drawing on nearly thirty years of research, she presents a compelling account of first encounters between disparate societies, which sparked conflict and collaboration eerily reminiscent of our contemporary moment. For readers of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens, The Year 1000 is an intellectually daring, provocative account that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about how the modern world came to be. It will also hold up a mirror to the hopes and fears we experience today.

Full Product Details

9781501194108

Table of Contents

Reviews

An absorbing read that makes a distant world feel near. --Francesca Trivellato, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of History at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, and author of The Familiarity of Strangers Offers timely proof that globalization has a point of origin and a long history. Then and now, it has been about exchange, competition, and exploitation. At least in the year 1000, globalization included fruitful forms of communication and knowledge. Although Hansen doesn't quite have us wishing we could turn back the clock, she offers in three hundred vivid pages the kind of deep texture that makes an age come alive. --Paul Freedman, author of Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination Hansen's story of the movement of peoples, products, religions, and ideas around the year 1000 makes it clear that globalization is nothing new...No one has told this story better or has been able to combine the latest scholarly research with such an exciting and accessible narrative. This is how world history should be written. --Stuart B. Schwartz, author of All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World The myth of the 'European Middle Ages' dissolves in the ocean currents and trade winds of this stimulating account of early global connections. Bolstered by facts and enlivened by intriguing theories, Hansen's book presents a world of objects, ideas, people, animals, and know-how constantly on the move. A brisk and refreshing trip for us all. --Barbara H. Rosenwein, author of A Short History of the Middle Ages and Generations of Feeling [A] unique fusion of firsthand, on-site investigations around the world and intensive research...What's more, all of this energetic, scholarly activity is combined with a compelling argument for a new hypothesis concerning the origins of globalization, a topic that could hardly be more pertinent to our own age. --Victor H. Mair, editor of The Columbia History of Chinese Literature and coauthor of The History of Tea and Sacred Display Valerie Hansen has not only fashioned a coherent and original vision of the world in the year 1000, in itself a remarkable feat of scholarship, but described it in a clear, concrete and absorbing narrative that will entertain and enlighten every reader. --R.I. Moore, author of The First European Revolution and The War on Heresy Valerie Hansen's sweeping tour of the world in the year 1000 is revelatory and full of eye-opening surprises. She tells a rich and fascinating story of the many ways that far-flung societies a millennium ago forged connections among themselves, a reminder that the forces of globalization that seem so potent today have been at work for centuries. A masterly work of scholarship. --Liaquat Ahamed, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lords of Finance

An absorbing read that makes a distant world feel near. --Francesca Trivellato, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of History at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, and author of The Familiarity of Strangers Valerie Hansen's sweeping tour of the world in the year 1000 is revelatory and full of eye-opening surprises. She tells a rich and fascinating story of the many ways that far-flung societies a millennium ago forged connections among themselves, a reminder that the forces of globalization that seem so potent today have been at work for centuries. A masterly work of scholarship. --Liaquat Ahamed, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lords of Finance Offers timely proof that globalization has a point of origin and a long history. Then and now, it has been about exchange, competition, and exploitation. At least in the year 1000, globalization included fruitful forms of communication and knowledge. Although Hansen doesn't quite have us wishing we could turn back the clock, she offers in three hundred vivid pages the kind of deep texture that makes an age come alive. --Paul Freedman, author of Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination Hansen's story of the movement of peoples, products, religions, and ideas around the year 1000 makes it clear that globalization is nothing new...No one has told this story better or has been able to combine the latest scholarly research with such an exciting and accessible narrative. This is how world history should be written. --Stuart B. Schwartz, author of All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World The myth of the 'European Middle Ages' dissolves in the ocean currents and trade winds of this stimulating account of early global connections. Bolstered by facts and enlivened by intriguing theories, Hansen's book presents a world of objects, ideas, people, animals, and know-how constantly on the move. A brisk and refreshing trip for us all. --Barbara H. Rosenwein, author of A Short History of the Middle Ages and Generations of Feeling [A] unique fusion of firsthand, on-site investigations around the world and intensive research...What's more, all of this energetic, scholarly activity is combined with a compelling argument for a new hypothesis concerning the origins of globalization, a topic that could hardly be more pertinent to our own age. --Victor H. Mair, editor of The Columbia History of Chinese Literature and coauthor of The History of Tea and Sacred Display Valerie Hansen has not only fashioned a coherent and original vision of the world in the year 1000, in itself a remarkable feat of scholarship, but described it in a clear, concrete and absorbing narrative that will entertain and enlighten every reader. --R.I. Moore, author of The First European Revolution and The War on Heresy

Author Information

Valerie Hansen is the Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University, where she teaches Chinese and world history. An accomplished scholar and author, she traveled to nearly twenty countries to conduct research for The Year 1000. She is also the author of The Silk Road: A New History and The Open Empire.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available