A broad, pioneering interpretation of the scope, patterns, and consequences of human migrations over the past ten centuries

A landmark work on human migration around the globe, Cultures in Contact provides a history of the world told through the movements of its people. It is a broad, pioneering interpretation of the scope, patterns, and consequences of human migrations over the past ten centuries. In this magnum opus thirty years in the making, Dirk Hoerder reconceptualizes the history of migration and immigration, establishing that societal transformation cannot be understood without taking into account the impact of migrations and, indeed, that mobility is more characteristic of human behavior than is stasis.

Signaling a major paradigm shift, Cultures in Contact creates an English-language map of human movement that is not Atlantic Ocean-based. Hoerder describes the origins, causes, and extent of migrations around the globe and analyzes the cultural interactions they have triggered. He pays particular attention to the consequences of immigration within the receiving countries. His work sweeps from the eleventh century forward through the end of the twentieth, when migration patterns shifted to include transpacific migration, return migrations from former colonies, refugee migrations, and distinct regional labor migrations in the developing world. Hoerder demonstrates that as we enter the third millennium, regional and intercontinental migration patterns no longer resemble those of previous centuries. They have been transformed by new communications systems and other forces of globalization and transnationalism.

"“A formidable piece of work. It is of particular importance because Hoerder shows in great detail that it is necessary to move from a focus on the Atlantic migration system in order to give due weight to migration flows in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific world. . . . Hoerder’s cast is a fascinating one, with particular attention to peoples, such as Armenians and Jews, that have had high rates of migration, but also with due attention to others that are generally neglected, such as Central Asian peoples.”" - National Interest

"Cultures in Contact reflects immense learning deployed over vast swaths of the globe. It breaks out of the Atlantic-centered perspective that has blinkered most European and Euro-American studies of migration, and for the period since 1500 it strives to bring Asian, African, and Pacific migrations into a larger world-system history of migration. . . . Hoerder's study of migration systems . . . does an outstanding job of synthesizing a vast library of scholarship on human migrations while also contributing to the growing body of global historical analysis. Cultures in Contact offers not only a survey of world migrations over the past millennium but also a synopsis of global history viewed from the perspective of migratory processes." - Labor

"[A] truly significant book which derives its authority from cross-cultural primary research, as well as secondary reading, on a scale that few previous authors have attempted. . . . [H]e has designed the book to ensure that readers interested in but one aspect of his story will be able to follow it intelligently, and his advancing argument is clarified by a sequence of original maps that will also serve as a vital teaching aid to all students of historical migration." - History Today

"[S]tunning. . . . [A] fine book, a well illustrated tour de force. . . ." - Journal of Pacific History

"The book represents an impressive, almost unbelievable, accomplishment. . . . Furthermore, the book is user-friendly. . . . Hoerder's book will become a classic and remain for years a valuable reference for anyone working on any aspect of the history of human migration since 1000 AD." - EH.NET

"This book will change the way you think about human mobility. . . . Cultures in Contact is a very large book, even encyclopedic. . . . Pick a place, a time, a people of meaning to you-then plunge in. You will be amazed at what you learn about how you came to be where you are." - Key Reporter

"This extraordinary book, written on Braudelian scale, is the most complex and comprehensive history of human migration yet. . . .[A] masterwork. . . . This volume should stand for a long time as the authoritative synthesis of the vast array of human migrations, bitter or sweet, that have happened over the last ten centuries." - Pacific Historical Review

"This is a book of enormous scope, ambition, and achievement. . . . Hoerder's work is a major synthesis and intervention in the field, and he is to be congratulated for his notable accomplishment." - Journal of American Ethnic History

"Through a remarkable collection of closely described cases, he elucidates both the structural similarities and the cultural distinctiveness of migrations in Medieval Europe, the Ottoman Empire, trading posts, fur empires, forced migration, proletarian and contract-labor migration, and the current "un-mixing" of peoples into nation-states. Hoerder's more than 50 maps . . . convey original and thought-provoking demonstrations of interactions among migration systems." - Population and Development Review

"[A] massive and definitive study on migration in the second millennium. . . . Highly recommended. All academic libraries. . . ." - Choice