Exploring Planetary Climate: A History of Scientific Discovery on Earth, Mars, Venus and Titan

P. A. Johnson
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引用次数: 4

Abstract

descriptions from the seventeenth, fourteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Each route and traveler essentially stand on its own. This is true even of the chapters on the Hajj and the trans-Saharan caravan routes, both of which follow the narrative of Ibn Battuta, but with virtually no references to each other. Not too surprisingly, only one of the travel-writers in the book is a woman (Lucy Duff Gordon, traveling the Nile in 1862); four of the twelve travelers are not European. The chapters are just over fifteen pages long, including notes, so there is not really room for more than a historical summary and some basic details. The style of writing is also noticeably, almost intrusively, simple: uniformly short sentences and easy vocabulary. There is definitely an art to this kind of writing, but the style is odd for a book published by Oxford University Press on a seemingly specialist topic. However, while There and Back concerns a particular type of history, it is certainly meant for a popular audience. There are interesting touches in most chapters. I enjoyed the chapter on the Silk Road (part of section II: “Pilgrimage Routes”), which followed the narrative of the Buddhist monk, Fa Xian, quite closely. Fa Xian and his companions traveled the Silk Road, starting in 399 CE, from their monastery in China to the places where the Buddha lived in India, searching for better translations of Buddhist sacred writings. Gordon, whose area of expertise is Asian history, is of course aware that the Silk Road is usually viewed as a trade route, rather than a pilgrimage route. By following Fa Xian’s story, Gordon focuses on “ . . . the less well-known, mental aspect of the Silk Road as a route, and tells us how ideas moved along it” (p. 64). This different perspective and the poignant details of Fa Xian’s story are compelling. On the other hand, I disliked the chapter on the Indian Ocean (in section IV: “Trade Routes”). The chapter supposedly followed the story of Malik Ambar from slavery (captured on the east coast of Africa) to being the ruler of an enclave in the Deccan Plateau of India. The story is interesting enough, but seemed somehow muddled or at least poorly edited – and, as an historian, I found the lack of footnotes for key parts of the story very frustrating. The very general “overview” of the Indian Ocean “route,” three pages at the end of the chapter, seemed better thoughtout than the narrative involving Ambar, but it was also a little ludicrous for such a vast region and span of time. As I was evaluating this book, I tried to figure out how it might be used. Parts of it are interesting for general reading, of course, but for people who have been engrossed in the history of travel for some time, such as the readers of this journal, it offers little that is particularly new or exciting. The book would not fit a typical freshman class at college either, with its spread of topics and confusing lack of chronology. But perhaps a chapter or two could be assigned in a World History survey course to add some extra information for the curious student. The concept for There and Back is appealing and chapters do include surprising moments. Perhaps it was the aim of the author that, ultimately, the reader would be left wanting to know more.
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探索行星气候:地球、火星、金星和泰坦的科学发现史
十七世纪、十四世纪和十九世纪的描述。每条路线和旅行者基本上都是独立的。即使是关于朝觐和跨撒哈拉商队路线的章节也是如此,这两个章节都遵循伊本·巴图塔的叙事,但几乎没有相互提及。毫不奇怪,书中只有一位旅行作家是女性(露西·达夫·戈登,1862年在尼罗河上旅行);十二个旅行者中有四个不是欧洲人。这些章节只有十五页多,包括笔记,所以除了历史总结和一些基本细节之外,没有其他空间。写作风格也明显,几乎是侵入性的,简单:统一的短句和简单的词汇。这种写作肯定有一门艺术,但对于牛津大学出版社出版的一本看似专业的书来说,这种风格很奇怪。然而,尽管《There and Back》涉及一种特定类型的历史,但它肯定是为受欢迎的观众准备的。大多数章节都有有趣的地方。我很喜欢关于丝绸之路的章节(第二节“朝圣之路”的一部分),它非常紧密地遵循了佛教僧侣法显的叙述。从公元399年开始,法显和他的同伴们沿着丝绸之路,从他们在中国的修道院到佛陀在印度居住的地方,寻找更好的佛教神圣著作翻译。戈登的专业领域是亚洲历史,他当然知道丝绸之路通常被视为一条贸易路线,而不是朝圣路线。通过讲述法贤的故事,戈登将重点放在“……丝绸之路作为一条路线的鲜为人知的心理方面,告诉我们思想是如何沿着这条路线发展的”(第64页)。这种不同的视角和法显故事中令人心酸的细节令人信服。另一方面,我不喜欢关于印度洋的章节(第四节:“贸易路线”)。据推测,这一章讲述了马利克·安巴尔从奴隶制(在非洲东海岸被俘)到成为印度德干高原飞地统治者的故事。这个故事很有趣,但似乎有些混乱,或者至少编辑得很差——作为一名历史学家,我发现故事的关键部分缺乏脚注,这让我非常沮丧。本章末尾三页的印度洋“路线”的总体“概述”似乎比涉及安巴尔的叙述考虑得更好,但对于如此广阔的地区和时间跨度来说,这也有点可笑。当我评估这本书时,我试图弄清楚如何使用它。当然,其中的一部分对于普通读者来说很有趣,但对于那些已经专注于旅行史一段时间的人来说,比如这本杂志的读者,它几乎没有提供什么特别新颖或令人兴奋的东西。这本书也不适合一个典型的大学新生班,因为它的主题很广泛,而且缺乏令人困惑的年表。但是,也许可以在世界历史调查课程中分配一两章,为好奇的学生添加一些额外的信息。《There and Back》的概念很吸引人,章节中确实包含了令人惊讶的时刻。也许这是作者的目的,最终,读者会想知道更多。
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CiteScore
0.50
自引率
50.00%
发文量
41
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