When Asia Was the World : Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the "Riches of the "East"
Stewart Gordon is Senior Research Scholar at the centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan, and author of three books on Asia. He lives in Ann Arbor.
"[A] reliable collection. The author provides background
information and explanation so that complex interactions become
accessible to the reader, and the book is enhanced by good
illustrations and a very useful bibliography."
--Saudi Aramco World Magazine
"[Gordon's] stories of travelers and explorers of Asia provides a
compelling, lively account."
--Midwest Book Review
"A timely book to encourage open-mindedness toward different
cultures."
--Library Journal
"An excellent examination of civilizations whose achievements are
probably unfamiliar to many in the West."--Booklist
"An extraordinary look at the Middle Ages."
--Deseret News
"Engaging and compact book arrives in the nick of time to expand
our knowledge of world history...Gordon reveals the vibrancy and
sophistication seen in the vast territory...The first-person
accounts provide vivid and distinctive perspectives on each epoch
and set of territories without overwhelming us with encyclopedic
details. A chapter on one particular person, in Gordon's hands,
becomes a miracle of compression...[A] short but fascinating
survey."
--Shelf Awareness
"Gordon writes clearly...Due to Gordon's straightforward prose and
the interweaving of journal entries from each traveler, chapters
come alive with humanness, personality, and suspense. The book is
well-documented...Gordon packs this slim volume with fascinating
facts."--Charleston Post & Courier
"If trade is what unites the modern global system and if Asia is
the focal point for the new century, then the people and events so
carefully described in When Asia Was the World are the ones we need
to know in order to understand where we are now. It is a book as
much about our future as our past."--Jack Weatherford, author of
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
"In this slim volume, Stewart Gordon takes readers on a journey
from Morocco to Manchuria, acquainting them with the lives,
experiences, and reflections of eight great travelers from the
centuries between 618 and 1521. The splendors of courtly life, the
austerity of Buddhist monasteries, and the rigors of sea travel and
the silk roads all come to life through these travelers' eyes.
Gordon's narratives are leavened with just the right amount of
historical context to help readers navigate."--J.R. McNeill,
Georgetown University, author of The Human Web and Something New
Under the Sun
"Provide[s] an intimate complement to David Levering Lewis's God's
Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 (2008)."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Refreshing...Reframes the genre...with zest, graceful scholarship,
and great skill in providing illuminating contexts."
--ForeWord
"Stewart is a compelling writer...When Asia Was the World will help
raise popular awareness that the Earth's history didn't begin in
Europe."--Milwaukee Shepherd Express
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