Peter N. Stearns, . New York and London: Routledge, 2022, ix, 336 pp., 9 maps.

We know clearly that we live in a global world today, and we are also pretty certain that the pre-modern period would be better understood if we approached it with a global perspective, as problematic as it certainly might be. The Americas and Australia, but also many parts of Africa and northern Asia were completely unknown to most Europeans and vice versa. But there were economic ties throughout time, and the Christian Church made many efforts already in the Middle Ages to missionize far beyond the confines of Europe. The Vikings were truly global operators during the height of their activities well to the tenth and maybe even eleventh centuries, and we also ought to incorporate the Jews as global players. Ironically, even the history of pandemics, such as the Justinian plague (541–549) and the Black Death (1347–1351), were explicit indicators of global connections.