When Asia Was the 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

"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

"The scholarship is remarkable in that the author has done an excellent job of digesting the mainstreams of current debate in the differing regions. There is good organization and an overall flow to this work--both in terms of a flow in time as also in topical address. It's all here: technology, warfare, diplomacy, trade networks, intellectual traditions, etc. The chapters are just the right length. They are engaging and informative without being overly academic. This is truly unique."--Kenneth Hall, Professor of History, Ball State University, South and Southeast Asia specialist

"The central question the author asks is at once profound and disarmingly simple--namely, how best to organize our knowledge of world history between the 6th and 16th centuries? The author addresses the above goal by concentrating on the lives of individuals (or in one case, a ship) who were constantly in motion, most of them traveling many thousands of miles in their lifetimes. By humanizing its subject matter in this way, the book makes complex historical processes immediately accessible to the reader. The work's accessibility is one of its greatest strengths. It neither talks down to the reader nor roams through a jargon-filled thicket of social theory."--Richard Eaton, Professor of History, University of Arizona, Asian and world historian, author of several books on India

"This is a new way of viewing and understanding global history: follow the wide travelers, go with them to new places, join them in their conversations, see the world as they came to see it. Stewart Gordon comes to history with fresh eyes and covers ground as few historians have been able to do. The result is new insights, especially into the remarkable developments of Asian worlds in a millennium of Asian predominance. This is thoughtful, innovative history at its best, a call to future work along similar lines in European history."--David Landes, Professor of Economics and History, emeritus, Harvard University

"Provide[s] an intimate complement to David Levering Lewis's God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 (2008)."

"An excellent examination of civilizations whose achievements are probably unfamiliar to many in the West."

"An extraordinary look at the Middle Ages."

"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."

"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."

"[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."

"[Gordon's] stories of travelers and explorers of Asia provides a compelling, lively account."

"Refreshing...Reframes the genre...with zest, graceful scholarship, and great skill in providing illuminating contexts."

"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."

"A timely book to encourage open-mindedness toward different cultures."