Modern Travel in World History

Modern Travel in World History uses three themes - technology, mass movements, and travellers - to examine the history of the modern world from the fifteenth-century transatlantic explorations to the impact of the global COVID pandemic of the 21st century.

This book focuses on both the evolving nature of travel, from land and sea routes in the 1500s, to the domination of planes and cars in the modern world and the important stories of travellers themselves. Taking a global perspective, the text places travel within the larger geopolitical, social, religious and cultural developments throughout history. It emphasizes not only the role of technology innovation in the ways people travel but also how those changes affect social structures and cultural values. Tom Taylor explores the journeys of well-known travellers as well as ordinary people, each with different perspectives through the lens of gender, social class and cultural background, and considers how fictional travellers define the importance of travel in the modern world. Why people set out on the sojourns they did, what they experienced, who they met and how they understood these cross-cultural encounters are important to not only understanding the travellers themselves but the world they lived in and the world their travels made. Several maps help illustrations important routes and destinations.

This book will be of interest to students of world history and literature.