Page 181 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1482 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Diasporas and transnational migrants and ethnic minori- Waley, A. (1939). Three ways of thought in ancient China. New York:
ties and the like have not been fully accommodated by MacMillan Press.
Weber, M., Gerth, H. H., & Mills, C.W. (Eds.). (1958). From Max Weber:
the homogenizing national polities of the nineteenth and Essays in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
twentieth centuries.This new approach to world history
provides a perspective that serves two complementary
purposes, therefore. On the one hand, it undermines
what its practitioners see as dominant narratives of exclu-
sionary national identity, thereby opening space for the Polo, Marco
excluded. On the other hand, it grounds alternative plu- (1254–1324)
ralistic social arrangements in a wider range of historical Venetian explorer
experience, and in doing so adds legitimacy to certain
political perspectives in the present. As with all other n 1271, at the age of seventeen, the Venetian Marco
metanarratives, what we think of as world history also IPolo (1254–1324) set out with his father, Niccolo,
engages profoundly with political thought. and his uncle Maffeo on a journey to the Mongol empire
of Khubilai Khan. Marco spent almost the next two
Adam K.Webb
decades traveling throughout Asia, trading and working
See also Aristotle; Confucius; Laozi; Locke, John; Plato; as an official within the Khan’s administration. After his
Socrates return to Venice, Marco Polo was captured in 1298 by
the Genoese navy while serving as the “Gentleman-
Commander” of a Venetian galley during a war between
the Italian city-states.While imprisoned in Genoa, Marco
Further Reading
recounted his adventures to his cell mate, Rusticello of
Aristotle. (1995). The politics (E. Barker,Trans.). New York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press. Pisa, a writer of romance stories, who had served at the
Collins, R. (1998). The sociology of philosophies. Cambridge, MA: Har- court of Edward I of England. Rusticello’s account of
vard University Press.
Dikötter, F. (1992). The discourse of race in modern China. London: Polo’s trip, titled the Travels of Marco Polo, was one of
Hurst. the first depictions of Asia to appear in the West. Trans-
Duara, P. (1995). Rescuing history from the nation: Questioning narra-
tives of modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. lated into many languages, the Travels circulated widely
Eisenstadt, S. N. (Ed.). (1986). The origins and diversity of axial age civil- throughout Europe in handwritten manuscript form
isations. Albany: State University of New York Press. before the appearance of the printing press. Marco Polo’s
Fu, Z. (1996). China’s legalists:The earliest totalitarians and their art of
ruling. London: M.E. Sharpe. Travels influenced European perceptions of Asia from the
Fukuyama, F. (1992). The end of history and the last man. New York: Free late medieval period through to the Age of Discovery in
Press.
Gress, D. (1998). From Plato to NATO:The idea of the West and its oppo- the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1492 Christo-
nents. New York: Free Press. pher Columbus carried a copy of the book with him on
Havelock, E.A. (1957). The liberal temper in Greek politics. New Haven, his voyage west across the Atlantic during his attempt to
CT: Yale University Press.
Hodgson, M. G. S. (1974). The venture of Islam: Conscience and history find a new route to the riches of Marco Polo’s Cathay.
in a world civilisation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. In 1260 the merchants Niccolo and Maffeo Polo
Jaspers, K. (1953). The origin and goal of history (M. Bullock, Trans.).
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. joined a Venetian trading mission to the city of Bukhara,
Mannheim, K., & Wirth, L. (1985). Ideology and utopia:An introduction located on the famed Silk Road in modern-day Uzbek-
to the sociology of knowledge (E. Shils, Trans.). New York: Harcourt istan. From there they joined a Mongolian embassy and
Brace.
Nehru, J. (1946). The discovery of India. New York: John Day. traveled to the court of Khubilai Khan at Kanbalu (Bei-
Savarkar, V. D. (1949). Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? Pune, India: S. P. jing).The elder Polos spent the next several years trading
Gokhale.
Smith, H. (1991). The world’s religions. San Francisco: Harper. in China until they were ordered by the Khan to return
Tucker, R. C. (1972). The Marx-Engels reader. New York: Norton. to Venice as his emissaries. When they returned home,