The Year 1000

When Explorers Connected the World - and Globalization Began

By: Valerie Hansen

Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

From celebrated Yale Professor Valerie Hansen, a “vivid” and “astonishingly comprehensive account [that] casts world history in a brilliant new light” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and shows how bold explorations and daring trade missions first connected all of the world’s societies at the end of the first millennium.

People often believe that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were, with just a few exceptions, lacking in any major cultural developments or geopolitical encounters, that the Europeans hadn’t yet reached North America, and that the farthest feat of sea travel was the Vikings’ invasion of Britain. But how, then, to explain the presence of blond-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Could it be possible that the Vikings had found their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire?

Valerie Hansen, an award-winning historian, argues that the year 1000 was the world’s first point of major cultural exchange and exploration. Drawing on nearly 30 years of research, she presents a compelling account of first encounters between disparate societies, which sparked conflict and collaboration eerily reminiscent of our contemporary moment.

For fans of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, The Year 1000 is an a “fascinating...highly impressive, deeply researched, lively and imaginative work” (The New York Times Book Review) that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about how the modern world came to be.

©2020 Valerie Hansen (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio

Great Book and Read

This was very informative. The facts provided created a great perspective of why we are today.

Very Academic and Difficult to Listen to

I found the writing style to be very academic and hard to listen to. On top of that the narrator sounded rather stilted as well. The book was heavy in dates, locations, and measurements that in many cases didn't add value. The author's practice of giving measurements in both English and metric was tiresome and made it difficult to hear the actual numbers.

All that said, the book included some interesting factoids and general information so I'm glad I slogged through it.

meh

Fascinating topic, read in as dull and boring a monotone as possible - almost as if that were the goal.

loved it, only better book kf this time period is

central asias golden enlightenment period. highly recommend this book. it really covers the asian side of history that is all too often left out

So interesting

This book was so fascinating. I will probably listen to it in many more times because there was so much information it was new to me. Terrific reader as well.

Interesting Premise

The thing that sticks out most is how bad the narrator was. I thought it wss the author at first, because she sounded like a monotone professor. The idea that globalization start at year 1000 was interesting. I was skeptical at first, but her arguments are good.

couldn't get into it, not my favorite narrator.

i don't know where it lost me, but i just powered thru it because i didn't want to leave it unfinished.

Deeply informative and surprising

Dr. Valerie Hansen has achieved a major work of popular history writing. Her facts are surprising, well cited, and original, and the theories connecting the facts are logical and clearly structured. The thesis that globalisation is nothing new is convincingly argued, and it is a very fun and illuminating read.

Well Researched

This a very interesting topic and one not covered by many other books. While the book is well organized and researched (with insightful notes and comments) it reads more like a text book than a non-fiction novel. I think the author could have had a more emphatic thesis as to why globalization started in 10th century (as opposed to earlier or later). What was it that coalesced in the year 1000 that changed our world. Many ideas are presented and discussed, but no single underlying thread connects them. Perhaps I ask too much. The performance was also a bit dry, if not robotic, adding to the character of the writing as a text book. My opinion.

Zoom in and out of time

This feels like a sequel to Sapiens - in that it explains of much of humanity today through the cultural evolutions of the past. It's long, but you'll come out with a new mental model of the world today.