The Year 1000, Valerie Hansen
The Year 1000, Valerie Hansen
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The Year 1000
When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began

Author: Valerie Hansen

Narrator: Cynthia Farrell

Unabridged: 8 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/14/2020


Synopsis

*A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice*

From celebrated Yale professor Valerie Hansen, a “vivid” and “astonishingly comprehensive account [that] casts world history in a brilliant new light” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and shows how bold explorations and daring trade missions first connected all of the world’s societies at the end of the first millennium.

People often believe that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were, with just a few exceptions, lacking in any major cultural developments or geopolitical encounters, that the Europeans hadn’t yet reached North America, and that the farthest feat of sea travel was the Vikings’ invasion of Britain. But how, then, to explain the presence of blond-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Could it be possible that the Vikings had found their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire?

Valerie Hansen, an award-winning historian, argues that the year 1000 was the world’s first point of major cultural exchange and exploration. Drawing on nearly thirty years of research, she presents a compelling account of first encounters between disparate societies, which sparked conflict and collaboration eerily reminiscent of our contemporary moment.

For readers of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, The Year 1000 is a “fascinating…highly impressive, deeply researched, lively and imaginative work” (The New York Times Book Review) that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about how the modern world came to be.

About Valerie Hansen

Valerie Hansen is the Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University, where she teaches Chinese and world history.  An accomplished scholar and author, she traveled to nearly twenty countries to conduct research for The Year 1000. She is also the author of The Silk Road: A New History and The Open Empire.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mihaela on June 11, 2024

Autoarea a lansat o provocare, prin faptul că a demonstrat fenomenul globalizării începând cu anul 1000, fără implicarea Europei. Foarte interesantă și bine documentată lucrarea și-a propus să demonstreze faptul că și fără echipamentele moderne de astăzi oameni au să interacționeze din cele mai vech......more

Goodreads review by Clif on April 08, 2021

This book describes the state of human civilization during the time around 1000 CE. It is the intent of this book to show that trade routes between disparate places in the world were already well established by the end of the first millennium, and that by the time Europeans began venturing out in th......more

Goodreads review by Boudewijn on May 22, 2023

It is the year 1000. Nothing much is happening in Western Europe. No knights in shining armour, at least not yet. And the Renaissance of the 12th century has yet to begin. Western Europa as the world's backyard? It seems so. According to American historian Valerie Hansen (1958) this is the year where......more

Goodreads review by Dave on September 23, 2023

Until I read this book, had I heard anyone use the words "globalization" and "Vikings" in the same sentence, I would have thought that Minnesota's NFL team was playing in this year's London game. However, I now know that Professor Hansen considers the Viking presence in North America around the year......more

Goodreads review by Dvd (#) on November 20, 2022

20/11/2022 (***) Il libro si occupa in sostanza di dare al lettore una efficace panoramica sulle rotte commerciali attive nel mondo intorno all'anno Mille (Europa propriamente detta e Mediterraneo esclusi). L'obiettivo è dimostrare che intorno a tali anni esisteva già una globalizzazione dei mercati......more


Quotes

"Sometime around the year 1000, Norsemen (and a few women) crossed from Greenland to what is now Canada. This audiobook marks that achievement as the first time goods and ideas could—at least, theoretically—travel around the world from the Americas to Europe, Africa, and Asia, introducing the possibility of true globalism. International and intercontinental trade routes stretched for thousands of miles, ready for European explorers to connect to them. . . . the material is fascinating to those with an interest in the distant origins of the modern world."