Distant Lands and Diverse Cultures

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Distant Lands and Diverse Cultures The French Experience in Asia, 1600-1700

Glenn J. Ames, ed., Ronald S. Love, ed.

ISBN: 0-313-30864-0

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-30864-2

DOI:

288 pages

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 7/30/2003

List Price: $79.95 (UK Sterling Price: £55.95)

Discount Price: $39.98 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Also Available: Ebook

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

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Series Title: Contributions in Comparative Colonial Studies

Description: Utilizing contemporary accounts of India, China, Siam and the Levant, this study provides rich detail about these exotic lands and explores the priorities that shaped and motivated these bold envoys and chroniclers. Ames and Love offer a fascinating look at the symbiotic nature of cross-cultural interaction between France and the major trading regions of the Indian Ocean basin during the 17th century. During this period of intense French interest in the rich trade and cultures of the region, Louis XIV and his minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert in particular were concerned with encouraging French travelers, both clerical and lay, to explore and document these lands. Among the accounts included here are those of François Bernier, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, and François Pyrard.

Because these accounts reflect as much about the structures and priorities of France as they do about the cultures they describe, Ames and Love hope their analysis bridges the gap between studies on early modern France and those on the major Asiatic countries of the same period. Their findings challenge the current thinking in the study of early modern France by demonstrating that overseas expansion to Asia was of considerable importance and interest to all segments of French society. Specialists in traditional internal French history will find much in this study of European expansion to complement and supplement their research.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Thévenot the Tourist: A Frenchman Abroad in the Ottoman Empire by Glenn Sundeen
A Veritable Bedouin: The Chevalier d'Arvieux in the Camp of the Emir Turabey by Deirdre Pettet
Secrets of the Seraglio: Harem Politics and the Rhetoric of Imperialism in the Travels of Sir Jean Chardin by S. Amanda Eurich
The French and Poncet's Ethiopia, 1698-1703 by Ronald S. Love and Theodore Natsoulas
The Travails of Madagascar: Rennefort's Relation du premier voyage de la Compagnie des Indies Orientales by Carl J. Sobocinski
Wonders of Nature, Diversity of Events: The Voyage of François Pyrard de Laval by Diane S. Margolf
Tavernier's Travels in India by Anne York
Mughal India During the Age of the Scientific Revolution: François Bernier's Travels and His Lessons for Absolutist Europe by Glenn J. Ames
A Young Physician on the Move: Dellon's Relation s'un voyage des Indes Orientales and his Relation de l'Inquisition de Goa by Glenn J. Ames
Simon de La Loubére: French Views of Siam in the 1680s by Ronald S. Love
In Search of a Passage to China: A French Jesuit's Perceptions of Siberia in the 1680s by Ronald S. Love
The Search for Souls in China: Le Comte's Nouveaux Memories by Linda and Marsha Frey
Index

About the Author: GLENN J. AMES is Professor of History at the University of Toledo. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. His books include Colbert, Mercantilism, and the French Quest for Asian Trade (1996) and Renascent Empire?: The House of Braganza and the Quest for Stability in Portuguese Monsoon Asia, ca. 1640-1683 (2000).

RONALD S. LOVE is Associate Professor of History at the State University of West Georgia. He is the author of Blood and Religion: The Conscience of Henri IV, 1553-1593 (2001).

LCC Class: 303


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