ARTICLES
Siena on the Silk Roads: Ambrogio Lorenzetti and the Mongol Global Century, 1250–1350
Roxann Prazniak, 177
The Mongol Empire opened intellectual exchange across the Eurasian expanse, generating a century of translocal creativity and cultural innovation. Major artistic centers under the Mongol Ilkhanate, including the workshops of Tabriz, evolved eclectic styles fusing elements from Iranian, Chinese, and Tibetan traditions among others. Sienese merchants and artists developed reciprocal contact with these centers and a growing awareness of Mongol cultural politics. Viewed in their Eurasian context, two frescoes by Sienese artist Ambrogio Lorenzetti, The Effects of Good Government and Martyrdom of the Franciscans, reframe and expand our understanding of the dynamic cultural pluralism that shaped our early modern history.
“The Sea Common to All”: Maritime Frontiers, Port Cities, and Chinese Traders in the Southeast Asian Age of Commerce, ca. 1400–1750
Craig A. Lockard, 219
The maritime frontier has played a key role in shaping the coastal peoples of Southeast Asia and South China, whose settlements were often more easily reached by water than over land, while serving to link these regions to the wider world. This article explores the maritime frontier from central China through the Malay Peninsula as a single field of interaction, sometimes compared to the Mediterranean, in the early modern era (1400 –1700) through a study of three key ports: Melaka in Malaya, Hoi An in Vietnam, and Ayutthaya in Siam. It also examines the Chinese from Fujian who settled in these ports, formed hybrid merchant communities, and operated the junks that helped connect these ports to China, Japan, the rest of Southeast Asia, and beyond during a long period of flourishing Southeast Asian commerce.
Monopolists to Middlemen: Dutch Liberalism and American Imperialism in the Opening of Japan
Martha Chaiklin, 249
The so-called opening of Japan is often seen as a victory for American gunboat diplomacy, accomplished through the expert negotiations of Commodore Matthew Perry. The successful conclusion of this action was the beginning of an American presence in the Pacific. The Dutch, who had trading relations with Japan since 1609, are seen as irrelevant, generally vilified, or despised as weak. This article draws on primarily Dutch archival sources to demonstrate that the Dutch in fact skillfully navigated very rough diplomatic waters and smoothed the American treaty process with the Tokugawa shogunate.
London’s Global Reach? Reuters News and Network, 1865, 1881, and 1914
Gordon M. Winder, 271
In the fifty years before 1914, London was served by Reuters, the world’s leading news agency. Reuters both led and reflected London’s expanding interests in world affairs, so analysis of its news supply offers insights into London’s situation as a late nineteenth-century world city. Saskia Sassen has defined global cities as forming a network with transnational producer services firms contracting with transnational corporations to supply the services that are necessary for their global businesses. This article asks whether Reuters offered worldwide coverage, operated as an imperial network, or functioned as a transnational producer services enterprise networking world cities. It does so by mapping the world news Reuters delivered to London newspapers using the telegraphic records of the Reuters Group Archive for sample news weeks in 1865, 1881, and 1914. Analysis reveals that Reuters was a nineteenth-century producer services firm offering transnational services organized by a web of enterprise and focused on a network of world cities. This suggests in turn that London may have been a global city before 1914.
REVIEW ARTICLE
Food as World History: Broadening the Horizon and Reach of Historical Research
Yong Chen, 297
Through its detailed analysis of three recent books on food, this article offers an overview of the rapidly growing field of food studies. It notes the field’s promise for increasing the depth and broadening the reach of historical research. It argues that food represents a particularly important vehicle for comprehending changes in world history. Food intimately relates to every aspect of human life and existence, and as cuisines and individual foodstuffs it constantly crosses physical and cultural boundaries. Its broad appeal, however, also increases the difficulty for studies of food to become a coherent field of intellectual inquiry.
BOOK REVIEWS
Pamela Kyle Crossley. What Is Global History?
reviewed by Giorgio Riello, 305
Cynthia Stokes Brown. Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present
reviewed by Don Holsinger, 308
Andrew Baruch Wachtel. The Balkans in World History
reviewed by Isa Blumi, 310
William M. Tsutsui, ed. A Companion to Japanese History
reviewed by Robert Stolz, 313
Paul Collins. From Egypt to Babylon: The International Age, 1550–500 BC
reviewed by Seth Richardson, 315
Judith Herrin. Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
reviewed by Adam M. Schor, 320
Peter A. Lorge. The Asian Military Revolution: From Gunpowder to the Bomb
reviewed by Jeff E. Long, 323
Nabil Matar. Europe through Arab Eyes, 1578–1727
reviewed by Ellen R. Welch, 326
Jack P. Greene and Philip D. Morgan, eds. Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal
reviewed by Erik R. Seeman, 329
Kenneth Morgan. Slavery and the British Empire: From Africa to America
reviewed by Justin Roberts, 332
Harold J. Cook. Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age
reviewed by Steven Paul Matthews, 336
Lynn Hunt. Inventing Human Rights: A History
reviewed by Benjamin N. Lawrance, 339
Pekka Hämäläinen. The Comanche Empire
reviewed by William J. Bauer Jr., 342
Brian Delay. War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.–Mexican War
reviewed by Matthew Babcock, 345
John J. Dwyer. The Agrarian Dispute: The Expropriation of American-Owned Rural Land in Postrevolutionary Mexico
reviewed by Benjamin Smith, 347
Ann Laura Stoler, Carole McGranahan, and Peter C. Perdue, eds. Imperial Formations
reviewed by Todd A. Henry, 349
Richard S. Fogarty. Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914–1918
reviewed by Lorelle D. Semley, 353
Sigrid Schmalzer. The People’s Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identity in Twentieth-Century China
reviewed by Xiuyu Wang, 356
F. Hilary Conroy and Francis Conroy with Sophie Quinn-Judge. West across the Pacific: American Involvement in East Asia from 1898 to the Vietnam War
reviewed by Fred L. Borch III, 360
Alexis Dudden. Troubled Apologies among Japan, Korea, and the United States
reviewed by Sarah Kovner, 362
Siddarth Kara. Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery
reviewed by Sealing Cheng, 363
