Product Description

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 forever; 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #266327 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Two things strike you most about John E Wills remarkable history book: that no one has done it before, and that it has been done so well, so seamlessly. Like other bestselling historians of recent years, Norman Davies Europe: A History or Felipe Fernandez-Armesto Millennium, Wills' scope is vast, but in only in space, not in time. He surveys the entire globe, but confines his time-scale to the single year 1688. This year is crucial to the history of the West as it is the year of Great Britain's Glorious (because bloodless) Revolution, a seismic political shift that would ultimately prove far more significant than the French Revolution.

In Japan, meanwhile, the Shogun is very anxious about cruelty to dogs; in North America, a Jesuit priest and a tribe of Pima Indian converts are about to discover that California is part of the mainland; and in Australia, William Dampier records the first Western impressions of aborigines: "The inhabitants of this country are the most miserable people in the world...." Dampier's gentlemanly wealth, of course, derived from buccaneering on the high seas. With such material to work with, 1688 was bound to be fascinating, but it could easily have become a ragbag as well. In fact, it is beautifully fashioned, a fine example of "compare and contrast". The date itself, for instance--1688--was only a European construct. For Muslims the year was 1099, and for the Chinese, it was the 26th year of the Kangxi reign. This is, all said, a lucid global history for our confusing global age. --Christopher Hart

Review
Presenting a worldwide view of events occurring in just one year of the 17th century, Wills sets his sights high with a Longitude type of book in the history sphere. A professor of history at the University of Southern California, his previous works are mainly studies of China, but also of European involvement therein. What makes this book so enchanting is the intricate detail of the stories, letters, poems and essays of the era. Moreover, when the author begins the tale of each new area, he takes care to update us on the events which have led to the situation that prevails. We learn of Klaas, a Khoikhoi (or Hottentot) chief, being imprisoned on Robben Island, off the South African coast, three centuries before Nelson Mandela suffered the same fate. Indeed, it is surprising how many similarities exist between 1688 and the present day. With his evocative local colour and careful use of context, Wills has produced a fascinating book that skips along at an unrelenting pace and transports you to another age.

What a brilliant idea. What a brilliant book. Warning: you may think you'll be able to dip into it, but you'll be totally hooked. As Wills says, 'serendipity, surprise and letting one thing lead you to another are not attitudes often associated with the methodical world of the professional historian'. But don't be fooled by modesty. He moves methodically from scene to scene all over the world, and he always - by serendipity, surprise or sheer meticulous scholarship - finds something significant happening. He wears his scholarship lightly. Take Siam. Having set the scene for us, since some of us may need to think about exactly where Siam was, and tossing lightly into this exotic picture the fact that 'a splendid Siamese embassy to France in 1686 has led to the dispatch of a return embassy accompanied by six hundred troops', he introduces us to Constantine Phaulkon, a Greek from Cephalonia which in the 1680s was ruled by Venice. The European powers of the day were already jockeying for a position in the far east. Phaulkon 'was walking whole networks of tightropes'. What a phrase. Then again, take Russia. In 1688 Russia had two tsars of whom Peter (not yet 'the great', he was was only 16) was one. He lived in the country, playing soldiers with his friends. 'Peter did not make himself colonel, but started out as an enthusiastic drummer boy and worked his way up - quite rapidly, to be sure...' Pause for a quiet chuckle. But those boys ended up as the Imperial Guard. Our 'Glorious Revolution', when we managed to change monarchs with hardly a jolt, 'might be described as a complex baroque improvisation for two kings, a polyphony of peers, choruses of invading soldiers and rioting Londoners, and an obbligato for printing press'. There's no more I can say - except buy the book. Review by LIZA PICARD (Kirkus UK)

From the Publisher
'For all those of us who are shamefully and parochially ignorant, John Wills’s book affords eye-opening perspectives on these worlds apart...'- The Times

'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

'One of the most fascinating and brilliant works of popular history ever written.' - Frank McLynn, Independent on Sunday

'In this magnificent global study, Wills sweeps with consummate ease across continents and cultures...' - The Times

‘John E.Wills opens vistas that most histories miss’ - The Times

'...the result [of] an astonishing varied account of what humanity across the globe was up to at that particular moment in seventeenth-century time...' - Literary Review

‘It’s an epic, and to encompass all these worlds in the space of 300-odd pages is an epic achievement in itself’ - Sunday Express

'The effect is fascinating, entertaining, instructive and teeming with delights’ - TLS

;The amazing stories which unfold in these exotic places resemble a magic-realist novel' - The Independent

‘Nothing limits him’ - The Scotsman

‘1688 becomes present as you read it’ - The Scotsman

‘Remarkable book’ - The Scotsman

'...teems with life, movement and surprises.' - The Scotsman

‘An epic and fascinating book that immerses the reader in a world of wooden ships, spices and diverse cultures’ - Ascot Express

‘Wills gives an ambitious global overview of the events of the time. The book roams far and wide’ - The Week

‘Wills writes beautifully; he has a gift for atmospheric but unpretentious scene-setting...' - Evening Standard

‘Magnificent book – an exhilarating beginning, and one which contains the method of 1688 in miniature’ - The Tablet

‘What a brilliant idea. What a brilliant book.’ - Good Book Guide

‘An intriguing collage of scenes and episodes here, there and everywhere in one particular year...’ - Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph

‘The original idea of telling a history of the world in just one year. [Everything is] swept up in one erudite, panoptic view’ - Sunday Times

‘A classic of history writing, beautifully resurrected by Granta....' - Herald (Glasgow)

'Wills weaves these seemingly disparate stories to produce a brilliant, serendipitous portrait of a world...’ - Waterstone’s Books Quarterly

Customer Reviews

A truly global view of 1688 covering all land masses
I found this book to be interesting, but it failed to live up to the review in The Sunday Times. Covering the entire globe, it is written in an american style and tends to concentrate just a little too much on the intricate details of China, giving the view that the writer has more than a passing interest in this corner of the far east. Europe is concisely covered, with the focus being on why Europe evolved as it did, as opposed to simply regurgitating dates and events. The section on Africa, interpreting the mindset which contributed to the slave trade was also enlightening. Overall, I found the book to be very interesting, but not riveting.