The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World — and Globalization Began (Simon & Schuster, 2021)

People tend to believe that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were lacking in any major cultural developments or geopolitical encounters — that the Europeans hadn’t yet reached North America and the farthest feat of sea travel was the Viking invasion of Britain. But how do we explain the presence of blond-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Did the Vikings find their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire? Drawing on nearly 30 years of research, historian Valerie Hansen argues that bold explorations and daring trade missions connected all of the world’s societies by the end of the first millennium.

About the author
Valerie Hansen is the Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale, where she teaches Chinese and world history. Her other books include The Silk Road: A New History and The Open Empire: A History of China to 1800. Hansen, who traveled to some 20 countries to research her book, promises to take attendees on a visual “tour around the world in the year 1000” during her presentation.