14世紀,“舊世界”(the Old World)在既定的歷史軌道上經歷了一系列深刻而突然的變化,氣候惡化、流行病暴發、戰爭升級、白銀產量下降等開始一起發生作用,導致大陸間的交換網破裂,經濟衰退和人口減少。這一系列的風暴啟動了不可逆轉的體系更迭。直到15世紀末,大航海、大發現興起之時,西方才開始再次展露頭腳。 這次“大轉型”席捲了歐亞大陸,是一次影響深遠的命運反轉。坎貝爾綜合使用歷史學、古生態學和生物學的新證據,包括核算國民收入、重建過去的氣候和對從瘟疫受害者牙齒中提取的DNA進行遺傳分析,評價了商業衰退、戰爭、氣候變遷和流行病在這次“大轉型”中發揮的作用,提出動態社會-生態系統的核心六要素理論,對西歐中世紀晚期商業經濟的產生、崩潰和重組提出了全新的解釋。 “大轉型”結束之時,西方在技術和貿易上開始從落後者轉為領跑者。實際上,正是從“大轉型”開始,東西方“大分流”就此發端。
現代人的旅行,都是從Google Maps、IG、旅遊網站開始,沒有網路的中世紀旅人——難道都兩手空空就出發?不!中世紀的人也需要避雷、找好住好吃好休息的旅遊指南!Seayu|即食歷史網站負責人、《奇怪歷史知識增加了!》作者、大眾歷史作家每日一冷|冷知識粉專、 《臺灣沒說你不知道》系列作者 ——誠心推薦★既是第一線經驗談,也免不了一些想像成分!一本充滿旅行家的真實經歷與參雜古老幻想的中世紀旅遊指南。★從歐洲出發,再從亞洲循環一圈世界(什麼!哥倫布這時候還沒發現新大陸)。以中世紀旅人的視角,經過50個中世紀最繁華、大家最想去的城市。★從中世紀的旅人指南裡,發現時間已經來到了21世紀,我們和他們的生活還是極為相似。牙痛沒牙醫治療,大家都到這個教堂祈求治癒?出門旅行沒有人脈,一定要靠這個在各個城鎮通關?到異地水土不服怎麼解,這幾款良方請務必備在身上!罪孽太深如何消?這幾個地方都提供懺悔券,要幾年都有!「中世紀許多探索者、探險家、朝聖者、商人和十字軍,稱呼世界為『地球蘋果』,他們想嚐一嚐這個蘋果。」在中世紀人們抱著對於神的敬仰、財富的慾望、異國文化的好奇,而踏上旅行。倫敦大學中世紀研究學者安東尼.貝爾(Anthony Bale)在研究中世紀的朝聖與旅行過程,發現了中世紀的旅行與現代旅行許多的相似之處。比如都喜歡到處蒐集紀念品、可能一臉觀光客樣子而被詐騙、水土不服吃壞肚子。本書精選了50多個中世紀旅人必去的城市,從西邊到東邊,一路再回到西邊,像是一個旅人在想像、準備直到出發,然後再次返回的過程。這個世紀的旅人或許抱持著不那麼真實的想像,卻是和現代人一樣對於航向未知的路途既期待又戰戰兢兢。國外好評推薦不斷:★「這本極具娛樂性的歷史書,每一頁都充滿智慧。」——《紐約客》(The New Yorker)★「一本迷人的中世紀旅行者記述。」——《蘇格蘭先驅報》(Scottish Herald) ★「為中世紀旅行者打造的《孤獨星球》指南,充滿了實用小撇步、貨幣兌換率和行李清單。」—《索引的歷史》(Index, A History of the)作者 丹尼斯.鄧肯★「《中世紀旅遊指南》巧妙地為讀者提供了兩種體驗。我們與那幾個世紀的歐洲人一起旅行,他們穿越歐亞大陸,有時甚至更遠。但是我們也前往他們的工作室、住宅、圖書館、城鎮廣場,那裡是他們想像和準備旅行的地方,也是他們返國後說故事的地方。」
From the departure of the Roman legions, to the battle of Bosworth and the rise of the Tudors, the world of medieval England was one of profound diversity and change. Now, in The Oxford Illustrated Hi
World literature was long defined in North America as an established canon of European masterpieces, but an emerging global perspective has challenged both this European focus and the very category of "the masterpiece." The first book to look broadly at the contemporary scope and purposes of world literature, What Is World Literature? probes the uses and abuses of world literature in a rapidly changing world.In case studies ranging from the Sumerians to the Aztecs and from medieval mysticism to postmodern metafiction, David Damrosch looks at the ways works change as they move from national to global contexts. Presenting world literature not as a canon of texts but as a mode of circulation and of reading, Damrosch argues that world literature is work that gains in translation. When it is effectively presented, a work of world literature moves into an elliptical space created between the source and receiving cultures, shaped by both but circumscribed by neither alone. Established classic
"Instantly engaging, constantly suspenseful, ultimately poignant and satisfying. Loved it!"--Diana Gabaldon, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Outlander seriesWhen fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. And she's alive, though currently trapped in the twelfth century, during the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Passing through the Dim, Hope enters a brutal medieval world of political intrigue, danger, and violence. A place where any serious interference could alter the very course of history. And when she meets a boy whose face is impossibly familiar, she must decide between her mission and her heart—both of which could leave Hope trapped in the past forever.
In the long span of human history to the twentieth century, almost all great leaders of empires and states were men, with few exceptions. One of them was Heavenly Empress Wu Zetian. She is the only female ruler in history to have replaced a powerful dynasty with her own in a major country and crowned herself emperor of China. This book is about how this daughter of a concubine, who began life in the palace as a lowly concubine of Emperor Taizong (see Heavenly Khan) at a very young age, overcame all obstacles in a man-dominated world and rose to the summit of power in medieval China.