Vermeer's Hat

Critics

• Where did you get that hat?

  Vermeer's paintings are not known for their drama. A courting couple flirt and joke, a young girl reads a letter from a lover, a housewife does her accounts. And they do it all washed in a calm, clear light that speaks of stillness and an enduring no ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

• Vermeer's Hat By Timothy Brook

  Every time you call an outsourced computer help desk in Mumbai, you're continuing a tradition of international commerce that began as soon as human beings figured out how to cross mountains and oceans. But in a more practical sense, modern globalizat ... (read full critics)

  bookpage published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

1 Review

• 

  The book is really very clever: take a few details from Vermeer's paintings and use them as the starting point for looking at what was going on in the globe in the XVII century, the year when, according to the author, globalization really got going. A slight pity is that since Brook is a sinologist ... (continue)

  The book is really very clever: take a few details from Vermeer's paintings and use them as the starting point for looking at what was going on in the globe in the XVII century, the year when, according to the author, globalization really got going. A slight pity is that since Brook is a sinologist he tends to give to China an importance that is a bit too central, leaving aside other really important elements of trade in the 1600s, which get just a few passing comments -- like spices, for example, or the importance of the Ottoman empire, or the madness inspired by tulips. Thus, the book is slightly incomplete, but still a very worth while read, entertaining and instructive at the same time.

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  ilariainthelibrary said on Jun 6, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
• Paperback 288 Pages
• ISBN-10: 1846681200
• ISBN-13: 9781846681202
• Publisher: Profile Books
• Pub date: Jul 16, 2009
• Also available as: Hardcover and Others

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