Description
Book SynopsisHow did news from the Eastcarried in ship logs and mariners' reports, journals, and correspondenceshape early Americans' understanding of the world as a map of dangerous and incoherent sites?Winner of the John Lyman Book Award by the North American Society for Oceanic HistoryFreed from restrictions of British mercantilism in the years following the War of Independence, Yankee merchants embarked on numerous voyages of commerce and discovery into distant seas. Through the news from the East, carried in mariners' reports, ship logs, journals, and correspondence, Americans at home imagined the world as a map of dangerous and deranged places. This was a world that was profoundly disordered, hobbled by tyranny and oppression or steeped in chaos and anarchy, often deadly, always uncertain, unpredictable, and unstable, yet amenable to American influence. Focusing on four representative arenasthe Ottoman Empire, China, India, and the Great South Sea (collectively, the East Indies, Oceana, and t
Trade Review...[A] fascinating study of the US's emerging self-identity during the Early Republic combines global history with an analysis of print culture.
—D.M. Corlett, Arizona State University,
ChoiceTable of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Coffeehouse Chatter
Chapter 2. Unholy Lands
Chapter 3. "Unfeeling Mandarins" in Canton and Macau
Chapter 4. Hindoos and Fakirs in India
Chapter 5. Cannibal Isles
Chapter 6. Echoes
Notes
Index
