- Published: 15/02/2001
- ISBN: 9781862074675
- Granta Books
- 250 pages
1688: A Global History
John E. Wills
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 for ever; 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.
£2.89
The breadth and depth of learning in Wills's book are staggering
Sunday Times
Each time Wills turns his narrative kaleidoscope he produces a brand-new landscape and cultural context
Daily Telegraph
For all those of us who are shamefully and parochially ignorant, John Wills's book affords eye-opening perspectives on these worlds apart