Brook, Timothy: Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World.(Book review) From: History: Review of New Books | Date: January 1, 2008| Author: Fritze, Ronald H. | COPYRIGHT 2008 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Brook, Timothy Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World New York: Bloomsbury Press 272 pp., $26.95, ISBN 978-1-5969-1444-5 Publication Date: January 2008

Using some of Johannes Vermeer's paintings as a window into seventeenth-century globalization might seem highly problematic at first glance, but Timothy Brook makes the concept work effectively and enjoyably. Brook is a historian of Ming China with a strong interest in material culture. Al...