I’ve been using Mungello’s Great Encounter of China and the West in my global History survey course for many years. I can’t think of another text that so clearly encompasses so many of the processes of globalization in the early modern world. Better still, it flips the traditional narrative away from a Eurocentric world view and never fails to generate substantive discussions. I always tell colleagues that if they are looking for one supplemental text to use in their World Civ classes, this is the one to pick – students will read it, will recognize transnational phenomenon, will use it as a springboard for class discussions, and will find their interest in world history reinvigorated.

Kenneth J. Orosz, Professor of History, Buffalo State University

Mungello's book ably explores the seismic shifts of the sixteenth and seventeenth century from the perspective of religion and culture in China and Europe. My students are drawn in by the way Jesuit missionaries shape and adapt Christianity to Chinese culture. The greatest strength of the book is Mungello's ability to dispassionately see cultural engagements and cultural clashes from the perspective of both sides, and in the process question Euro-centrism in favor of a more multipolar worldview. I would recommend instructors of world history consider this text, as Mungello highlights in dense but clear language and specific detail how China and the west first sized each other up on the world stage, and how individuals within both cultures were able to step outside their own ethnocentrism to appreciate, and even defend, the practices of a foreign culture.

Michael McCarty, Professor of History, Salisbury University