Journal of World History, vol. 22, no. 1 (2011)

ARTICLES

The Rise and Fall of Cowrie Shells: The Asian Story
Bin Yang, 1

This article sketches the rise and fall of the use of cowrie shells in eastern Eurasia from the archaeological period to the nineteenth century. Originating in the sea, especially in the region of the Maldive islands, cowrie shells migrated to various parts of Asia as precious goods in the prehistoric era and later became a commodity and currency. By focusing on their experiences in Chinese, Indian, and Southeast Asian societies, this article illustrates the significance of these shells in a cross-regional context, analyzes the transformation of their functions over the longue durée, and discusses some local and global issues, such as why cowrie shells failed to develop into a common currency in early China.

Provincializing Rome: The Indian Ocean Trade Network and Roman Imperialism
Matthew P. Fitzpatrick, 27

In conquering Egypt, the Roman Empire secured direct access to the centuries-old Indian Ocean trade network that in Roman times brought together China, India, Southeast Asia, Parthia, Arabia, and Africa as well as the Roman Mediterranean. Far from being a product of Schumpeterian objectless expansion, Rome’s conquest of Egypt fit into a broader strategic logic that sought to extend Roman control over eastern
entrepôts. Despite its centrality to the Mediterranean wing of the world economy and its ability to extract surplus from its own provinces, the hub of this global economy remained India, whose linchpin emporia were able to extract surplus from the Roman Empire.

A Silk Road Legacy: The Spread of Buddhism and Islam
Xinru Liu, 55

Many great processes of world history had their origins in Central Asia. This article explores the religious and social life of Central Asian peoples both before and after Islamization, relying on historical records written in Arabic, Persian, and Chinese, as well as modern scholarship in art history and archaeology. It demonstrates that Central Asian peoples have survived numerous calamities and thrived in a constantly changing environment, particularly in the transitional phase from a predominantly Buddhist to a predominantly Muslim region.

Finding the Pacific World
Katrina Gulliver, 83

Defining the Pacific for historical scholarship has presented particular challenges. This article argues that it is possible to define the “Pacific World” as a temporal and geographical category during the period ca. 1770–1941. This period witnessed a philosophical and cultural consciousness of the Pacific, as demonstrated by trade, cultural connections, and deliberate international affiliation based on shared Pacific location. The idea that there was indeed a Pacific World, in a specific historical period, then offers a starting point for closer analysis of the networks that existed within it.

Selling Mankind: UNESCO and the Invention of Global History, 1945–1976
Poul Duedahl, 101

In the wake of World War II, UNESCO promoted a new approach to the writing of world history in an attempt to support UN peacekeeping through “mental engineering” in the service of peace. The first task was to launch an authoritative world history without particular geographical orientations. This was intended to provide a profound understanding of the interdependence of various cultures and to accentuate their contributions to the common cultural heritage, thus disarming history by constructing a sense of international unity. This article focuses on the discussions leading up to the publication of the much-criticized History of Mankind volumes of 1963 to 1976 and demonstrates why it makes sense to characterize the project as the starting point of the genre of global history.

BOOK REVIEWS

Ian F. McNeely with Lisa Wolverton. Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet
reviewed by Paula Petrik, 135

Thomas N. Bisson. The Crisis of the Twelfth Century: Power, Lordship, and the Origins of European Government
reviewed by Anne E. Lester, 136

William Chester Jordan. A Tale of Two Monasteries: Westminster and Saint-Denis in the Thirteenth Century
reviewed by David C. Mengel, 140

James P. Delgado. Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet: In Search of a Legendary Armada
reviewed by Timothy May, 143

Gijs Kruijtzer. Xenophobia in Seventeenth-Century India
reviewed by Markus Vink, 146

Neil Safier. Measuring the New World: Enlightenment Science and South America
reviewed by David A. Reid, 150

Daniela Bleichmar, Paula De Vos, Kristin Huffine, and Kevin Sheehan, eds. Science in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, 1500–1800
reviewed by Timothy J. Coates, 153

Miles Ogborn. Global Lives: Britain and the World, 1550–1800
reviewed by Jason Nice, 157

Peter T. Leeson. The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates
reviewed by Claire Schen, 159

Kathleen M. Brown. Foul Bodies: Cleanliness in Early America
reviewed by Jonathan Eacott, 163

John Darwin. After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire since 1405
reviewed by Ron Sela, 165

James R. Akerman, ed. The Imperial Map: Cartography and the Mastery of Empire
reviewed by Lucy Chester, 168

Phillip Buckner, ed. Canada and the British Empire
reviewed by Ryan M. Touhey, 171

Adam M. McKeown. Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of Borders
reviewed by Kwee Hui Kian, 174

Gijsbert Oonk, ed. Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory
reviewed by Shefali Chandra, 177

Andrew Sartori. Bengal in Global Concept History: Culturalism in the Age of Capital
reviewed by Ajay Skaria, 181

Erik Esselstrom. Crossing Empire’s Edge: Foreign Ministry Police and Japanese Expansionism in Northeast Asia
reviewed by Emer O’Dwyer, 185

Gary Y. Okihiro. Island World: A History of Hawai‘i and the United States
reviewed by Paul Spickard, 191

Alexandra Harmon, ed. The Power of Promises: Rethinking Indian Treaties in the Pacific Northwest
reviewed by Steven M. Fountain, 193

Wayne Dooling. Slavery, Emancipation and Colonial Rule in South Africa
reviewed by Joyce M. Chadya, 196

Nancy C. Carnevale. A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890–1945
reviewed by Mark I. Choate, 199

Umut Özkīrīmlī and Spyros A. Sofos. Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey
reviewed by Alexander Kitroeff, 202

Paul Hagenloh. Stalin’s Police: Public Order and Mass Repression in the USSR, 1926–1941
reviewed by Alexander Hill, 204

Barbara Epstein. The Minsk Ghetto, 1941–1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism
reviewed by Sean Martin, 207

Theodore S. Hamerow. Why We Watched: Europe, America, and the Holocaust
reviewed by Kirsten Fermaglich, 209

Mark Atwood Lawrence. The Vietnam War: A Concise International History
reviewed by David Biggs, 213

UH Press
Privacy Overview

University of Hawaiʻi Press Privacy Policy

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

University of Hawaiʻi Press collects the information that you provide when you register on our site, place an order, subscribe to our newsletter, or fill out a form. When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address, mailing 0address, phone number or credit card information. You may, however, visit our site anonymously.
Website log files collect information on all requests for pages and files on this website's web servers. Log files do not capture personal information but do capture the user's IP address, which is automatically recognized by our web servers. This information is used to ensure our website is operating properly, to uncover or investigate any errors, and is deleted within 72 hours.
University of Hawaiʻi Press will make no attempt to track or identify individual users, except where there is a reasonable suspicion that unauthorized access to systems is being attempted. In the case of all users, we reserve the right to attempt to identify and track any individual who is reasonably suspected of trying to gain unauthorized access to computer systems or resources operating as part of our web services.
As a condition of use of this site, all users must give permission for University of Hawaiʻi Press to use its access logs to attempt to track users who are reasonably suspected of gaining, or attempting to gain, unauthorized access.

WHAT DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION FOR?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

To process transactions

Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested. Order information will be retained for six months to allow us to research if there is a problem with an order. If you wish to receive a copy of this data or request its deletion prior to six months contact Cindy Yen at [email protected].

To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature

Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the service requested. Your information will only be kept until the survey, contest, or other feature ends. If you wish to receive a copy of this data or request its deletion prior completion, contact [email protected].

To send periodic emails

The email address you provide for order processing, may be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order, in addition to receiving occasional company news, updates, related product or service information, etc.
Note: We keep your email information on file if you opt into our email newsletter. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.

To send catalogs and other marketing material

The physical address you provide by filling out our contact form and requesting a catalog or joining our physical mailing list may be used to send you information and updates on the Press. We keep your address information on file if you opt into receiving our catalogs. You may opt out of this at any time by contacting [email protected].

HOW DO WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information.
We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be stored on our servers.
Some services on this website require us to collect personal information from you. To comply with Data Protection Regulations, we have a duty to tell you how we store the information we collect and how it is used. Any information you do submit will be stored securely and will never be passed on or sold to any third party.
You should be aware, however, that access to web pages will generally create log entries in the systems of your ISP or network service provider. These entities may be in a position to identify the client computer equipment used to access a page. Such monitoring would be done by the provider of network services and is beyond the responsibility or control of University of Hawaiʻi Press.

DO WE USE COOKIES?

Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser (if you click to allow cookies to be set) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.
We use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart. You can see a full list of the cookies we set on our cookie policy page. These cookies are only set once you’ve opted in through our cookie consent widget.

DO WE DISCLOSE ANY INFORMATION TO OUTSIDE PARTIES?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer your personally identifiable information to third parties other than to those trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your personally identifiable information to those persons to whom disclosure is required to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

CALIFORNIA ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT COMPLIANCE

Because we value your privacy we have taken the necessary precautions to be in compliance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act. We therefore will not distribute your personal information to outside parties without your consent.

CHILDRENS ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT COMPLIANCE

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY ONLY

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

YOUR CONSENT

By using our site, you consent to our web site privacy policy.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page, and update the Privacy Policy modification date.
This policy is effective as of May 25th, 2018.

CONTACTING US

If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy you may contact us using the information below.
University of Hawaiʻi Press
2840 Kolowalu Street
Honolulu, HI 96822
USA
[email protected]
Ph (808) 956-8255, Toll-free: 1-(888)-UH-PRESS
Fax (800) 650-7811