Cultural interconnection informs this collection's view of the Middle
Ages.While globalization is a modern phenomenon, premodern people were
also interconnected in early forms of globalism, sharing merchandise,
technology, languages, and stories over long distances. Looking across
civilizations, this volume takes a broad view of the Middle Ages in
order to foster new habits of thinking and develop a multilayered,
critical sense of the past.The essays in this volume reach across
disciplinary lines to bring insights from music, theater, religion,
ecology, museums, and the history of disease into the literature
classroom. The contributors provide guidance on texts such as the
Thousand and One Nights, Sunjata, Benjamin of Tudela's Book of Travels,
and the Malay Annals and on topics such as hotels, maps, and camels.
They propose syllabus recommendations, present numerous digital
resources, and offer engaging class activities and discussion questions.
Ultimately, they provide tools that will help students evaluate popular
representations of the Middle Ages and engage with the dynamics of past,
present, and future world relationships.