Expanding Empires: Cultural Interaction and Exchange in World Societies from Ancient to Early Modern Times

by Michael A. Polushin (Editor), Wendy Kasinec (Editor)

Overview

This new volume examines the processes of cultural exchange as they occurred in 'empire building,' looking at Early Mesopotamia, Africa, Greece, Japan, India, the Arab world, and empires in other parts of the globe. The articles draw upon a variety of disciplines from the social sciences and the humanities, a feature not often found in other readers. Unlike other books on world civilizations, this text strives to develop a consistent theme as it focuses on the manner in which imperial authority and cultural interaction worked through different bureaucracies in various empires. The articles also help students understand the cross-cultural interactions and historical events that have laid the foundation for our modern global society.

This book also contains useful maps and supplements consisting of images to assist students in visualizing and understanding the textual material. This new text is ideal for courses in world history prior to 1650.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780842027304
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/01/2002
Series:	The World Beat Series
Pages:	243
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Wendy F. Kasinec teaches World Civilizations at Loyola University. Michael A. Polushin is assistant professor of Latin American history at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Assyria: The Land of Assur and the Yoke of Assur
Chapter 3 Egypt: The First Colonial Empire
Chapter 4 Supplement 1: Hegemonic Images and Empire
Chapter 5 Macedonian Empire: Alexander and the Successor Kingdoms
Chapter 6 Seleucid Babylonia: hellenism in Seleucid Babylonia
Chapter 7 Mauryan Empire: India's First Imperial Unification
Chapter 8 Supplement 2: Cultural Integrity and Change
Chapter 9 Eastern Germanic "Kings": Rome and the German "Kings"
Chapter 10 Carolingian Empire: Integration and Social Reproduction
Chapter 11 Supplement 3: Family, Property, and the Law
Chapter 12 Africa: Islam in West Africa
Chapter 13 Spain: Muslims and Christians in Spain
Chapter 14 Supplement 4: Four Faces of Islam
Chapter 15 Han Dynasty: Nomads and Han China, 221 B.C.-220 A.D.
Chapter 16 T'ang Dynasty: China's Northern Frontier during the T'ang Dynasty
Chapter 17 Supplement 5: Boundaries and Barriers
Chapter 18 Yamato Dynasty: The Creation of the Imperial State System
Chapter 19 Supplement 6: Cultural Attrition and Imperial Expansion
Chapter 20 Mongolia: Mongol Imperial Government after Cinggis Qan
Chapter 21 Supplement 7: Asian Rituals of Rule
Chapter 22 Russia: Russia and the Mongols
Chapter 23 Supplement 8: The Cultural Marketplace
Chapter 24 Aztecs: Aztecs adn the Valley of Mexico
Chapter 25 Inca: Andean Peoples and the Spanish Empire
Chapter 26 Supplement 9: Civic Order, Status, and Legitimacy

Editorial Reviews

In this rich and suggestive volume, the editors have brought together a wide-ranging set of scholarly studies of situations of cultural contact that resulted from the establishment of empires in diverse places and times. Accessible enough to be used as a supplemental reader in introductory world history surveys, Expanding Empires: Cultural Interaction and Exchange in World Societies from Ancient to Early Modern Times is sufficiently sophisticated also to be appropriate for upper-level courses dealing with issues in world history.

Ida Altman

Bold, innovative, and refreshing.. .. This is a truly global and non-hegemonic perspective.

Tunde Adeleke

This is a shrewdly designed volume of essays, translated texts, and visual images that will really help students think 'world historically.' Europe is kept where it belongs, far out on one end of rich and complicated developments in Asia and Africa, eventually the heir to other interactions in the Americas. Rather than focus on cultures and societies as separate entities, the editors lead students to think about interactions of cultures and power.

John E. Wills

Wendy Kasinec and Michael Polushin have assembled an extraordinarily thoughtful and well-crafted collection of essays. This volume will prove invaluable to all those interested in the analysis of imperial expansion and its multifaceted and multitiered consequences. To demonstrate their assertion that 'empires and societies do not exist in isolation,' the editors have put together sixteen selections that not only prove their claim but also provide a sophisticated road map of the complexity of intercultural relationships between and among world civilizations. In addition to its other scholarly qualities, this highly readable book should attract equally the specialist and the initiate.

Daniel Castro