HIS 103: World History to 1500: Reference Collection

New Books in the General Collection

• The Worlds of the Indian Ocean : A Global History by Philippe Beaujard

  Call Number: Oversize DS338 .B4213 2019 v.1-2

  ISBN: 9781108424561

  Publication Date: 2019-10-24

  "Europe's place in history is reassessed in this first comprehensive history of the ancient world, centering on the Indian Ocean and its role in pre-modern globalization. Philippe Beaujard presents an ambitious and comprehensive global history of the Indian Ocean world, from the earliest state formations to 1500 C.E."-- Provided by publisher.
• African Dominion : a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa by Michael Gomez

  Call Number: DT476 .G66 2018

  ISBN: 9780691177427

  Publication Date: 2018-01-01

  "Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book, the first on this period of the region's history in a generation, tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, including Arabic manuscripts, oral histories, and recent archaeological findings, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history more generally. Scholars have long held that such distinctions arose during the colonial period, but Gomez shows they developed much earlier. Focusing on the Savannah and Sahel region, Gomez traces the exchange of ideas and influences with North Africa and the Central Islamic Lands by way of merchants, scholars, and pilgrims. Islam's growth in West Africa, in tandem with intensifying commerce that included slaves, resulted in a series of political experiments unique to the region, culminating in the rise of empire. A major preoccupation was the question of who could be legally enslaved, which together with other factors led to the construction of new ideas about ethnicity, race, gender, and caste--long before colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. Telling a radically new story about early Africa in global history, African Dominion is set to be the standard work on the subject for many years to come." -- From dust jacket.
• Birds in the Ancient World : winged words by Jeremy Mynott

  Call Number: QL690.G8 M96 2020

  ISBN: 9780198853114

  Publication Date: 2020-07-01

  "Birds pervaded the ancient world. They impressed their physical presence on the daily experience and imaginations of ordinary people in town and country alike, and figured prominently in literature and art. They also provided a fertile source of symbols and stories in their myths and folklore, and were central to the ancient rituals of augury and divination. Jeremy Mynott's Birds in the ancient world: winged words brings together all this rich and fascinating material for the modern reader"--Inside dust jacket
• A Fistful of Shells : West Africa from the rise of the slave trade to the age of revolution by Toby Green

  Call Number: DT476 .G74 2021

  ISBN: 9780226789736

  Publication Date: 2021-03-05

  "By the time the 'Scramble for Africa' among European colonial powers began in the late nineteenth century, Africa had already been globally connected for centuries, but with the growth of the slave trade came the decline of African kingdoms. Drawing on written histories, archival research in nine countries, art, oral history, archaeology, and letters, Green lays bare the transformations in Africa that have shaped global politics and economics since the fifteenth century and paints a masterful portrait of West Africa, past and present."--Back cover.
• Ming China and Its Allies by David M. Robinson

  Call Number: DS753 .R63 2020

  ISBN: 9781108489225

  Publication Date: 2020-01-02

  "This book analyzes the exercise of imperial rulership during the first six decades of the fifteenth century, when the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) governed China. Like emperors of other dynasties, Ming rulers regularly highlighted their status as patron and sovereign to a wide variety of populations, both at home and abroad, but my particular focus is early Ming emperors' relations with what contemporaries sometimes called 'men from afar,' that is, leaders who usually hailed from beyond dynastic and cultural borders. In both celebrating mastery and cultivating allies, the emperor played the role of lord of lords. I examine one subset of lords or men from afar, Mongol nobles, who were heirs to the military and political legacy of Genghis Khan -- here spelled Chinggis Khan (1163-1227)"-- Provided by publisher.
• Phoenix : a father, a son, and the rise of Athens by David Stuttard

  Call Number: DF226.M5 S78 2021

  ISBN: 9780674988279

  Publication Date: 2021-05-04

  "Fifty years before its golden age, Athens was just another city-state in Sparta's shadow. David Stuttard tells the story of the father and son who lifted Athens. Miltiades defeated the Persians at Marathon; Cimon drove them from Greece, revitalized the war-torn city, and moderated its foreign policy, creating the conditions for Athenian greatness"-- Provided by publisher.
• Philip and Alexander : kings and conquerors by Adrian Goldsworthy

  Call Number: New Title Shelf DF233.8.A44 G65 2020

  ISBN: 9781541646698

  Publication Date: 2020-10-13

  "Alexander the Great's conquests staggered the world. He led his army across thousands of miles, from northern Greece to modern Pakistan, overthrowing the greatest empires of his time and building a new one in their place. He led from the front and was often wounded. He claimed to be the son of a god, but he was actually the son of Philip II. In Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors, classical historian Adrian Goldsworthy argues that without the work and influence of his father, it is very doubtful that Alexander would have achieved so much. Philip II of Macedon is often remembered as an old man, one-eyed and lame from wounds. But he was young and inexperienced when he came to power. Philip inherited a minor kingdom that was on the verge of being dismembered. He succeeded in making Macedonia dominant throughout Greece and preparing Alexander to lead his army into war against Persia. Philip, Goldsworthy shows, created the armies that won Alexander's victories. A bold new interpretation, Philip and Alexander will be the definitive dual biography of two men who together reshaped the ancient world."-- Provided by publisher.
• African Europeans by Olivette Otele

  Call Number: D1056.2.B55 O84 2021

  ISBN: 9781541619678

  Publication Date: 2021-05-04

  "A dazzling history of Africans in Europe, revealing their unacknowledged role in shaping the continent. Conventional wisdom holds that Africans are only a recent presence in Europe. But in African Europeans, renowned historian Olivette Otele debunks this and uncovers a long history of Europeans of African descent. From the third century, when the Egyptian Saint Maurice became the leader of a Roman legion, all the way up to the present, Otele explores encounters between those defined as "Africans" and those called "Europeans." She gives equal attention to the most prominent figures--like Alessandro de Medici, the first duke of Florence thought to have been born to a free African woman in a Roman village--and the untold stories--like the lives of dual-heritage families in Europe's coastal trading towns. African Europeans is a landmark celebration of this integral, vibrantly complex slice of European history, and will redefine the field for years to come."--Amazon.