Donald F. Lach – författare

Praised for its scope and depth, "Asia in the Making of Europe" is the first comprehensive study of Asian influences on Western culture. For volumes I and II, the author has sifted through virtually every European reference to Asia published in the sixteenth-century; he surveys a vast array of writings describing Asian life and society, the images of Asia that emerge from those writings, and, in turn, the reflections of those images in European literature and art. This monumental achievement reveals profound and pervasive influences of Asian societies on developing Western culture; in doing so, it provides a perspective necessary for a balanced view of world history."Volume I: The Century of Discovery" brings together "everything that a European could know of India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, from printed books, missionary reports, traders' accounts and maps" ("The New York Review of Books"). "Volume II: A Century of Wonder" examines the influence of that vast new body of information about Asia on the arts, institutions, literatures, and ideas of sixteenth-century Europe.

Praised for its scope and depth, "Asia in the Making of Europe" is the first comprehensive study of Asian influences on Western culture. For volumes I and II, the author has sifted through virtually every European reference to Asia published in the sixteenth-century; he surveys a vast array of writings describing Asian life and society, the images of Asia that emerge from those writings, and, in turn, the reflections of those images in European literature and art. This monumental achievement reveals profound and pervasive influences of Asian societies on developing Western culture; in doing so, it provides a perspective necessary for a balanced view of world history."Volume I: The Century of Discovery" brings together "everything that a European could know of India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, from printed books, missionary reports, traders' accounts and maps" ("The New York Review of Books"). "Volume II: A Century of Wonder" examines the influence of that vast new body of information about Asia on the arts, institutions, literatures, and ideas of sixteenth-century Europe.

Praised for its scope and depth, "Asia in the Making of Europe" is the first comprehensive study of Asian influences on Western culture. For volumes I and II, the author has sifted through virtually every European reference to Asia published in the sixteenth-century; he surveys a vast array of writings describing Asian life and society, the images of Asia that emerge from those writings, and, in turn, the reflections of those images in European literature and art. This monumental achievement reveals profound and pervasive influences of Asian societies on developing Western culture; in doing so, it provides a perspective necessary for a balanced view of world history."Volume I: The Century of Discovery" brings together "everything that a European could know of India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, from printed books, missionary reports, traders' accounts and maps" ("The New York Review of Books"). "Volume II: A Century of Wonder" examines the influence of that vast new body of information about Asia on the arts, institutions, literatures, and ideas of sixteenth-century Europe.

Praised for its scope and depth, "Asia in the Making of Europe" is the first comprehensive study of Asian influences on Western culture. For volumes I and II, the author has sifted through virtually every European reference to Asia published in the sixteenth-century; he surveys a vast array of writings describing Asian life and society, the images of Asia that emerge from those writings, and, in turn, the reflections of those images in European literature and art. This monumental achievement reveals profound and pervasive influences of Asian societies on developing Western culture; in doing so, it provides a perspective necessary for a balanced view of world history."Volume I: The Century of Discovery" brings together "everything that a European could know of India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, from printed books, missionary reports, traders' accounts and maps" ("The New York Review of Books"). "Volume II: A Century of Wonder" examines the influence of that vast new body of information about Asia on the arts, institutions, literatures, and ideas of sixteenth-century Europe.

Asia in the Making of Europe traces European encounters with Asia, and the ways in which those encounters have altered the development of western society, art, literature, science, and religion since the Renaissance. In doing so, this work provides a much-needed perspective necessary for a balanced view of European and Asian history. A Century of Advance, the third volume of this monumental work, is devoted to the seventeenth century. Donald F. Lach and Edwin Van Kley have researched virtually all the writings on Asia published in Europe at this time, in an effort to understand how contemporaries saw Asian societies and peoples. During this century, more and better information became available as merchants and missionaries pushed deeper into the interiors of the Asian lands previously known only on their peripheries. While conducting commerce and spreading Christianity, westerners "discovered" Manchuria, Korea, Tibet, Formosa, and Australia; they also learned much more than their predecessors about Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism and about their importance in Asian life.Their countrymen, eager for news from the East, read of their exploits in the widely published Jesuit letterbooks, mission reports, and merchant travelogues. These sources are valuable to modern scholars for the insights they provide on the development of European culture. They also provide details of everyday life not included in native Asian sources, and aspects of Asian culture that have passed out of existence and thus are unfamiliar to modern scholars. The authors' extraordinarily detailed and insightful readings of the documents of discovery, contribute greatly to a more balanced understanding of Asian history, in addition to deepening our understanding of this critical era in European history.

This series reveals the impact of Asia's high civilizations on the development of modern Western society. The authors examine the ways in which European encounters with Asia have altered the development of Western society, art, literature, science, and religion since the Renaissance. In Volume III, "A Century of Advance", the authors have researched 17th-century European writings on Asia in an effort to understand how contemporaries saw Asian societies and peoples. Book One discusses Christian missions, and trade and conquest in the East and examines the various histories, reports, letterbooks, and travelogues printed and widely disseminated throughout Europe in the 17th century.

"Asia in the Making of Europe" traces European encounters with Asia, and the ways in which those encounters have altered the development of Western society, art, literature, science, and religion since the Renaissance. In doing so, this work provides a perspective necessary for a balanced view of European and Asian history. "A Century of Advance," the third volume of this work, is devoted to the 17th century.

This series reveals the impact of Asia's high civilizations on the development of modern Western society. The authors examine the ways in which European encounters with Asia have altered the development of Western society, art, literature, science, and religion since the Renaissance. In Volume III, "A Century of Advance", the authors have researched 17th-century European writings on Asia in an effort to understand how contemporaries saw Asian societies and peoples.