Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #770692 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 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

Synopsis
Historian John E. Wills presents a picture of the world over just one year, a time when only a few travellers and merchants were aware of societies beyond their own. The book reflects the variety, splendour and strangeness of the human condition.

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.