Author : Robert D. Kaplan
Publisher :
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 49,11 MB
Release : 2018
Category : History
ISBN : 0812996798
"Drawing on decades of first-hand experience as a foreign correspondent and military embed for The Atlantic, Robert D. Kaplan makes a powerful, clear-eyed case for what timeless principles should shape America's role in the world: a respect for the limits of Western-style democracy; a delineation between American interests versus American values; an awareness of the psychological toll of warfare; a projection of military power via a strong navy; and more"--
Author : Frances Wood
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 185 pages
File Size : 37,91 MB
Release : 2018-06-19
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0429980620
We all ?know? that Marco Polo went to China, served Ghengis Khan for many years, and returned to Italy with the recipes for pasta and ice cream. But Frances Wood, head of the Chinese Department at the British Library, argues that Marco Polo not only never went to China, he probably never even made it past the Black Sea, where his family conducted business as merchants.Marco Polo's travels from Venice to the exotic and distant East, and his epic book describing his extraordinary adventures, A Description of the World, ranks among the most famous and influential books ever published. In this fascinating piece of historical detection, marking the 700th anniversary of Polo's journey, Frances Wood questions whether Marco Polo ever reached the country he so vividly described. Why, in his romantic and seemingly detailed account, is there no mention of such fundamentals of Chinese life as tea, foot-binding, or even the Great Wall? Did he really bring back pasta and ice cream to Italy? And why, given China's extensive and even obsessive record-keeping, is there no mention of Marco Polo anywhere in the archives?Sure to spark controversy, Did Marco Polo Go to China? tries to solve these and other inconsistencies by carefully examining the Polo family history, Marco Polo's activities as a merchant, the preparation of his book, and the imperial Chinese records. The result is a lucid and readable look at medieval European and Chinese history, and the characters and events that shaped this extraordinary and enduring myth.
Author : Rolf Potts
Publisher : Travelers' Tales
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 45,66 MB
Release : 2009-04-01
Category : Travel
ISBN : 1932361715
Marco Polo Didn’t Go There is a collection of rollicking travel tales from a young writer USA Today has called “Jack Kerouac for the Internet Age.” For the past ten years, Rolf Potts has taken his keen postmodern travel sensibility into the far fringes of five continents for such prestigious publications as National Geographic Traveler, Salon.com, and The New York Times Magazine. This book documents his boldest, funniest, and most revealing journeys—from getting stranded without water in the Libyan desert, to crashing the set of a Leonardo DiCaprio movie in Thailand, to learning the secrets of Tantric sex in a dubious Indian ashram. Marco Polo Didn’t Go There is more than just an entertaining journey into fascinating corners of the world. The book is a unique window into travel writing, with each chapter containing a “commentary track”—endnotes that reveal the ragged edges behind the experience and creation of each tale. Offbeat and insightful, this book is an engrossing read for students of travel writing as well as armchair wanderers.
Author : Denis Belliveau
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 22,51 MB
Release : 2008-10-07
Category : History
ISBN : 0742557375
Did Marco Polo reach China? This richly illustrated companion volume to the public television film chronicles the remarkable two-year expedition of explorers Denis Belliveau and Francis O'Donnell as they sought the answer to this controversial 700-year-old question. With Polo's book, The Travels of Marco Polo, as their guide, they journeyed over 25,000 miles becoming the first to retrace his entire path by land and sea without resorting to helicopters or airplanes. Surviving deadly skirmishes and capture in Afghanistan, they were the first Westerners in a generation to cross its ancient forgotten passageway to China, the Wakhan Corridor. Their camel caravan on the southern Silk Road encountered the deadly singing sands of the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. In Sumatra, where Polo was stranded waiting for trade winds, they lived with the Mentawai tribes, whose culture has remained unchanged since the Bronze Age. They became among the first Americans granted visas to enter Iran, where Polo fulfilled an important mission for Kublai Khan. Accompanied by 200 stunning full-color photographs, the text provides a fascinating account of the lands and peoples the two hardy adventurers encountered during their perilous journey. The authors' experiences are remarkably similar to descriptions from Polo's account of his own travels and life. Laden with adventure, humor, diplomacy, history, and art, this book is compelling proof that travel is the enemy of bigotry—a truth that resonates from Marco Polo's time to our own.
Author : William F. Buckley
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 35,93 MB
Release : 2015-08-25
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1504018524
A CIA agent is on trial in the USSR in this New York Times bestseller that “mixes politics, humor, suspense, and ingenious espionage capers” (Publishers Weekly). The prisoner in the dock is accused of unspeakable crimes against the Soviet Union—charges Blackford Oakes is proud to be guilty of. The agent has spent 9 years fighting the spread of Communism in Europe, and he intends to continue the battle. It shouldn’t be hard for the Russians to convict him of espionage—after all, Oakes was found on Soviet soil in a downed U-2 spy plane—and it will take a masterstroke for the agent to escape execution. The funny thing is, the Russians are playing right into his hands. After 3 years on leave from the CIA, Oakes was brought back to take part in 1 of the most daring operations in intelligence history. His mission is to crash the plane, get captured, and endure the trial. So far, everything’s going according to plan. Now he just has to get out of the Soviet Union alive. Marco Polo, If You Can is the 4th book in the Blackford Oakes Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Author : Jacqueline Morley
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 17,74 MB
Release : 2010
Category : Asia
ISBN : 9780531205181
A humorous spin on Marco Polo's exploration of Asia.
Author : Italo Calvino
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 179 pages
File Size : 32,42 MB
Release : 2013-08-12
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 054413320X
Italo Calvino's beloved, intricately crafted novel about an Emperor's travels—a brilliant journey across far-off places and distant memory. “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo—Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear.
Author : George M. (George Makepeace) 184 Towle
Publisher : Wentworth Press
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 38,50 MB
Release : 2016-08-27
Category : History
ISBN : 9781371556938
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Author : Laurence Bergreen
Publisher : Knopf
Page : 462 pages
File Size : 47,67 MB
Release : 2007
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN :
In this authoritative biography of one of the most fascinating figures in world history, Marco Polos incredible odyssey--along the Silk Road and through all the fantastic circumstances of his life--is chronicled in sumptuous and illuminating detail. Illustrated.
Author : Jack Weatherford
Publisher : Crown
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 14,37 MB
Release : 2005-03-22
Category : History
ISBN : 0609809644
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The startling true history of how one extraordinary man from a remote corner of the world created an empire that led the world into the modern age—by the author featured in Echoes of the Empire: Beyond Genghis Khan. The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Genghis Khan abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege. From the story of his rise through the tribal culture to the explosion of civilization that the Mongol Empire unleashed, this brilliant work of revisionist history is nothing less than the epic story of how the modern world was made.
