Name: The Year 1000
ISBN: 9781501194115

Valerie Hansen

The World in the Year 1000 -- Go West, Young Viking -- The Pan-American Highways of 1000 -- European Slaves -- The World's Richest Man -- Central Asia Splits in Two -- Surprising Journeys -- The Most Globalized Place on Earth.

When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began

The Year 1000

From celebrated Yale professor Valerie Hansen, a groundbreaking work of history showing that bold explorations and daring trade missions connected all of the world’s great societies for the first time at the end of the first millennium. People often believe that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were, with just a few exceptions, lacking in any major cultural developments or geopolitical encounters, that the Europeans hadn’t yet reached North America, and that the farthest feat of sea travel was the Vikings’ invasion of Britain. But how, then, to explain the presence of blonde-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Could it be possible that the Vikings had found their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire? Valerie Hansen, an award-winning historian, argues that the year 1000 was the world’s first point of major cultural exchange and exploration. Drawing on nearly thirty years of research, she presents a compelling account of first encounters between disparate societies, which sparked conflict and collaboration eerily reminiscent of our contemporary moment. For readers of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, The Year 1000 is an intellectually daring, provocative account that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about how the modern world came to be. It will also hold up a mirror to the hopes and fears we experience today.

Christian Beck

I learned a lot from this book and overall it’s easy to follow despite the audacious scope the author chooses to cover (literally the entire world). Personally I am challenged to follow and familiarize so many diverse characters but that’s not necessarily the author’s fault.

What I appreciated the most was her attention to the theme of globalization. She does a good job highlighting how it emerged and facilitated the growth and decline of so many global civilizations around 1000 AD. My only criticism is that she can get too mired in discussing the evidence. Acknowledging where there is controversy (such as whether the Norse actually ended up near Chitzen Itza) is great but sometimes she spends several pages going back and forth. While that’s certainly needed in an academic setting, it took me out of the stories.

It’s not quite as compelling a book as, say 1491 or a Jared Diamond book, but it’s really close and worth the read.

The Year 1000 When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began

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