There and Back

Twelve of the Great Routes of Human History
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-0-19-947645-9
Verlag: Hurst & Co.

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 142 mm x 218 mm, Gewicht: 386 g

Throughout human history, routes concentrated, funnelled, and mixed human experience. On them moved books, scrolls, and art, in addition to armies, ambassadorial entourages, slaves, brides, and pilgrims. The interaction of people on routes generated surprising innovations in ideas, religions, art, technology, and cuisine. Common themes appear repeatedly, such as slavery, piracy, government taxation and control, medicinal plants, military expeditions, the interaction
of competing religions, processing of goods along the way, and networks of credit, trust, and information that often spanned continents.

This book is divided into four seconds, each concentrating on a type of route: river, pilgrimage, tribute, and trade. The arrangement is based on cognitive geography, rather than technological or physical similarities. For instance, the Rhine is not a river route because there is water flowing between two banks, but because of the songs and fairy tales about it and its long history as a political boundary. Pilgrimage routes are grounded in shared expectations and experiences, just as routes of
imperial tribute rest primarily on the expectations of local officials, transporters, and military guards. Trade routes foreground the expectations of professional traders. Each route is 'travelled' through the memoir of a real traveller, pulling away to address larger issues, but never losing the
engagement of the human story.

The geographic reach is worldwide with chapters, for example, on the Grand Canal of China and the Inca road system; they also have considerable historical depth, from the ancient Nile to the Erie Canal and the modern Hajj.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gordon, Stewart

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Humangeographie Historische Geographie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Historische Geographie, Landkarten & Atlanten

Über Autor(innen)

Gordon T. Stewart is professor Emeritus of World History and British Empire History at the State University of Michigan. His two most recent books are JUTE AND EMPIRE. THE CALCUTTA JUTE WALLAHS AND THE LANDSCAPES OF EMPIRE (Manchester University Press, 1998), and JOURNEYS TO EMPIRE. ENLIGHTENMENT, IMPERIALISM, AND THE BRITISH ENCOUNTER WITH TIBET 1774-1904 (Cambridge University Press, 2009). He has written articles on a variety of topics from charismatic leadership
in religious revivals to the relationship between mountaineering and empire for a range of international professional journals including PAST & PRESENT, COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIETY AND HISTORY, HISTOIRE SOCIALE/ SOCIAL HISTORY, JOURNAL OF SPORTS HISTORY, and HISTORY TODAY. To give a sense of his
current research he has a forthcoming article to be published in the JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY titled "1774: The Scottish Enlightenment Meets the Tibetan Enlightenment", a forthcoming chapter in the Oxford University Press series New

Directions in the History of Exploration on "European Exploration in Central Asia", and a book chapter on comparative urban history "Endgame for Jute: Dundee and Calcutta 1890-2000."1998), and JOURNEYS TO EMPIRE. ENLIGHTENMENT, IMPERIALISM, AND THE BRITISH ENCOUNTER WITH TIBET 1774-1904 (Cambridge University Press, 2009). He has written articles on a variety of topics from charismatic leadership in religious revivals to the relationship between mountaineering and empire for a range of
international professional journals including PAST & PRESENT, COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIETY AND HISTORY, HISTOIRE SOCIALE/ SOCIAL HISTORY, JOURNAL OF SPORTS HISTORY, and HISTORY TODAY. To give a sense of his current research he has a forthcoming article to be published in the JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY titled
"1774: The Scottish Enlightenment Meets the Tibetan Enlightenment", a forthcoming chapter in the Oxford University Press series New Directions in the History of Exploration on "European

Exploration in Central Asia", and a book chapter on comparative urban history "Endgame for Jute: Dundee and Calcutta 1890-2000."