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Description
Places of Encounter provides a place-based approach to world history, focusing on specific locations at critical moments when human history was transformed as a result of encounters—physical, political, cultural, intellectual, and religious. Original, contributed essays by leading academics in the field explore places from Hadar to Xi’an, Salvador to New York, and numerous other locations that have produced historical shockwaves and significant global impact throughout history. With a chronologically organized table of contents, each chapter dissects a particular moment in history, with personal commentary from each contributor, a narrative of the location’s historical significance at the time, and a section on significant global connections. Primary sources and discussion questions at the end of each chapter allow students a view into the lives of individuals of the time. Students will experience the narrative of historic individuals as well as modern scholars looking back over documentation to offer their own views of the past, providing students with the perfect opportunity to see how scholars form their own views about history.
This text can be purchased as two volumes,
Volume Two: Since 1500, providing a breadth of information for survey courses in world history.
About the Authors
Aran MacKinnon is professor of history at the University of West Georgia. He is the author of An Introduction to Global Studies and The Making of South Africa: Culture and Politics.
Elaine McClarnand MacKinnon is professor of history at the University of West Georgia. She is the editor and translator of Mass Uprisings in the USSR.
Praise for Places of Encounter
“This book presents world history accessibly and succinctly through key sites and cities, from Xi’an to Carthage to Potosi. It will work well together with the current textbooks that emphasize interaction and connections in world history. The authors draw students in to their subjects with accounts of their own personal engagement with their chosen site or city, an especially welcome feature.”
–J.R. McNeill, Georgetown University
“Places of Encounter is an ideal text for an increasingly mobile college student body. Yet beyond giving students an appreciation for the diversity of places in human experience, the authors of Places of Encounter impress upon its readers the uniqueness of human experience across time and space. It is a valuable tool for stressing the singularity of human experience across the globe and throughout millennia.”
—Dr. Evan R. Ward, Brigham Young University
“After using chapters of Places of Encounter in my world history class, I now have a useful tool for students to use in getting a better understanding of the nature of interconnectedness in world history. It allows students to understand the notion of place over time and how important that concept is for a clearer appreciation of historical processes. My students noted especially how the individual chapters personalized distant places (both in time and geography) so that they felt that they had actually visited the prime centers of world history. This volume will become a classic in its own right.”
—Eugene Cruz-Uribe, CSU–Monterey Bay
Contents
Thematic Table of Contents
Regional Table of Contents
Note to the Student
Note to Professors
Volume 1
1. HADAR: The Legacy of Human Ancestors (4,000,000–100,000 BCE)
CHRISTOPHER HOWELL, RED ROCKS COLLEGE
2. MAKAPANSGAT AND PINNACLE POINT: Three Million Years of Human Evolution in South Africa (3,000,000–2,000 BCE)
ANDY I. R. HERRIES, LA TROBE UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE, VIC, AUSTRALIA
3. BABYLON: Rise of a Complex Urban Civilization (ca. 3700–539 BCE)
MELANIE SUE BYRD, VALDOSTA STATE UNIVERSITY
4. ATHENS: The Cradle of Western Civilization (900 BCE–324 CE)
NADEJDA POPOV, UNIVERSITY OF WEST GEORGIA
5. XIAN: Eastern Gateway and Strategic Citadel (1049 BCE–907 CE)
KEITH N. KNAPP, THE CITADEL, THE MILITARY COLLEGE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
6. CARTHAGE: Gateway to the World Beyond the Mediterranean (800 BCE–700 CE)
JULIA CLANCY-SMITH, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
7. CONSTANTINOPLE/ISTANBUL: A Vortex of Peoples and Cultures (324 CE–1500)
NINA ERGIN, KOÇ UNIVERSITY, TURKEY
8. MECCA: Pilgrimage and the Making of the Islamic World (400–1500)
MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER LOW, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
9. KILWA: A Commercial City in the Economic and Cultural Cross-Currents (1000–1500)
ERIK GILBERT, ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
10. VARANASI: The Microcosm of India and Exemplar of Balance (ca. 1200–1600 CE)
NITA KUMAR, CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE
11. SAMARKAND: Political and Economic Hub Connecting East and West (1220–1660)
REUEL R. HANKS, OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
12. VENICE: A Center of International Exchange in the Renaissance World (1350–1550)
MARITERE LÓPEZ, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO
13. POTOSÍ: A Motor of Global Change (1545–1600s)
JANE E. MANGAN, DAVIDSON COLLEGE
14. MALACCA: Cosmopolitan Trading Port of the Early Modern World (1500–1824)
BARBARAWATSON ANDAYA AND LEONARD Y. ANDAYA, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI’I
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