Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World PDF Download

Author: John Larner
Publisher: Yale Nota Bene
ISBN: 9780300089004
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
In this engaging and authoritative book, historian John Larner provides a fresh view of the enigmatic Marco Polo, who, despite a deliberate cultivation of impersonality, continues today to engage the attention of readers. 17 illustrations, 12 in color.

Author: John Man
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1409045641
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
**A SOURCE FOR MARCO POLO, A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES** Marco Polo's journey from Venice, through Europe and most of Asia, to the court of Kublai Khan in China is one of the most audacious in history. His account of his experiences, known simply as The Travels, uncovered an entirely new world of emperors and concubines, great buildings - 'stately pleasure domes' in Coleridge's dreaming - huge armies and imperial riches. His book shaped the West's understanding of China for hundreds of years. John Man travelled in Marco's footsteps to Xanadu, in search of the truth behind Marco's stories; to separate legend from fact. Drawing on his own journey, archaeology and archival study, John Man paints a vivid picture of the man behind the myth and the true story of the great court of Kublai Khan.

Author: Robert D. Kaplan
Publisher:
ISBN: 0812996798
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
"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
ISBN: 0429980620
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
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: Marco Polo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Asia
Languages : en
Pages : 812

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Author: Michael Burgan
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 9780756511470
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
A biography of the thirteenth-century Venetian explorer whose book about his travels across Asia and work for Kubla Khan helped to launch the Age of Exploration.

Author: Benjamin B. Olshin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022614982X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Concerns a collection of maps and associated documents claimed to be from Marco Polo's time or that of his daughters (as many of the maps have the name or one or another of the three daughters on them). Discusses provenance, authenticity, and history of the documents, known to scholars as "the Marco Polo Maps" since 1948, here discussed fully for the first time.

Author: Rolf Potts
Publisher: Travelers' Tales
ISBN: 1932361715
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
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: Gunnar Thompson
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0557231655
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
The best introduction to multiethnic New World Discovery before Columbus. Nine true adventures featuring Hatshepsut, King Solomon, Xu Fu, Marco Polo, Nicholas of Lynn, Zheng He, Martin Behaim, Amerigo Vespucci, King Arthur, Queen Elizabeth, and Francis Drake. Includes first maize (Indian corn) in Egypt, early maps of America before Columbus, Roman Florida, Albertin di Virga's 1414 map of Peru and North America, ancient artifacts and faces of Old World voyagers in Mexico and Peru, and Francis Drake's amazing "clock map." Excellent coffee-table book; great for adults and young readers. Beautifully illustrated; excellent index and bibliography. A fun read that is also packed with new information about secret voyages, forbidden lands, and enigmas the pros have missed.

Author: Susan Zannos
Publisher: Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 161228907X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
Marco Polo, the first European to travel to China and return to write about his adventures, was born in Venice in 1254. Marco's father had left on a journey to Asia before the boy was born. Marco did not see his father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, until fifteen years later. In 1271 the three Polos left Venice and headed for the court of Kublai Khan in eastern China. The journey took them more than three years—they arrived in 1275. Marco Polo became a favorite of the Great Khan, and was sent on important missions all over the Mongol Empire. Marco and his father and uncle served Kublai Khan for 17 years. When they returned to Venice in 1295, Marco became the captain of a merchant ship and was captured and imprisoned in Genoa. While in prison he and another prisoner who was a writer of romances wrote the story of Marco Polo's adventures.