Deep Cosmopolis

Traces an alternative strand of cosmopolitan thinking that cuts across centuries and civilisations, and suggests some important lessons for the contours of globalization in our own time. Divided into two parts, Adam K. Webb digs into some fascinating currents of thought and practice in the ancient world, the Middle Ages, and the early modern period, across all major civilisations, and traces patterns of "deep cosmopolitanism." to map out the lost promise of deep cosmopolitanism, with its logic quite unlike that of liberal globalization today. He later draws out the lessons of deep cosmopolitanism for our own time, from the rise of new non-Western powers like China and India and what they offer the world, to religious tolerance, to global civil society, to cross-border migration. A new perspective on world history, and a distinctive vision of globalization for this century which has the real potential to resonate with us all.

Adam K. Webb is Resident Professor of Political Science at the Hopkins-Nanjing Centre, which is one of the two overseas branches of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).