John E. Wills Jr.

1688

A rich, kaleidoscopic history of the world in a year at the dawn of modern times.

Told with the verve and color of Robert Darnton’s bestseller The Great Cat Massacre, Jack Wills’s masterful history ushers us into the worlds of 1688, from the suicidal exaltation of Russian Old Believers to the ravishing voice of the haiku poet Basho. Witness the splendor of the Chinese imperial court as the Kangxi emperor publicly mourns the death of his grandmother and shrewdly consolidates his power. Walk the pungent streets of Amsterdam and enter the Rasp House, where vagrants, beggars, and petty criminals labor to produce powdered brazilwood for the dyeworks. Meet the Dog Shogun who rules Edo Castle, issuing countless edicts forbidding cruelty to dogs. Through these stories, Wills paints a detailed picture of how the global connections of power, money, and belief were beginning to lend the world its modern form. 12 b/w illustrations.