Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World

Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World

Author: John Larner

Publisher: Yale Nota Bene

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 9780300089004

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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.


The Return of Marco Polo's World

The Return of Marco Polo's World

Author: Robert D. Kaplan

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0812996798

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"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"--


Marco Polo

Marco Polo

Author: Michael Burgan

Publisher: Capstone

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 9780756511470

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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.


Did Marco Polo Go To China?

Did Marco Polo Go To China?

Author: Frances Wood

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-06-19

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0429980620

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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.


Marco Polo Didn't Go There

Marco Polo Didn't Go There

Author: Rolf Potts

Publisher: Travelers' Tales

Published: 2009-04-01

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 1932361715

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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.


Marco Polo's Asia

Marco Polo's Asia

Author: Leonardo Olschki

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1960

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13:

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First systematic study of the book which for centuries remained the western world's chief source of information about many parts of Asia.


The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps

The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps

Author: Benjamin B. Olshin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2014-10-29

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 022614982X

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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.


Earning the Rockies

Earning the Rockies

Author: Robert D. Kaplan

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2017-11-07

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0399588221

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An incisive portrait of the American landscape that shows how geography continues to determine America’s role in the world Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • “There is more insight here into the Age of Trump than in bushels of political-horse-race journalism.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) At a time when there is little consensus about who we are and what we should be doing with our power overseas, a return to the elemental truths of the American landscape is urgently needed. In Earning the Rockies, New York Times bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan undertakes a cross-country journey, traversing a rich and varied landscape that still remains the primary source of American power. Traveling west, in the same direction as the pioneers, Kaplan witnesses both prosperity and decline, and reexamines the history of westward expansion in a new light: as a story not just of genocide and individualism but also of communalism and a respect for the limits of a water-starved terrain. Concluding at the edge of the Pacific Ocean with a gripping description of an anarchic world, Earning the Rockies shows how America’s foreign policy response ought to be rooted in its own geographical situation. Praise for Earning the Rockies “Unflinchingly honest . . . a lens-changing vision of America’s role in the world . . . a jewel of a book that lights the path ahead.”—Secretary of Defense James Mattis “A sui generis writer . . . America’s East Coast establishment has only one Robert Kaplan, someone as fluently knowledgeable about the Balkans, Iraq, Central Asia and West Africa as he is about Ohio and Wyoming.”—Financial Times “Kaplan has pursued stories in places as remote as Yemen and Outer Mongolia. In Earning the Rockies, he visits a place almost as remote to many Americans: these United States. . . . The author’s point is a good one: America is formed, in part, by a geographic setting that is both sanctuary and watchtower.”—The Wall Street Journal “A brilliant reminder of the impact of America’s geography on its strategy. . . . Kaplan’s latest contribution should be required reading.”—Henry A. Kissinger “A text both evocative and provocative for readers who like to think … In his final sections, Kaplan discusses in scholarly but accessible detail the significant role that America has played and must play in this shuddering world.”—Kirkus Reviews