Modern Travel in World History

Modern Travel in World History uses three themes-technology, mass movements and travelers-to examine the history of the modern world from the fifteenth-century transatlantic explorations to the impact of the global COVID pandemic of the twenty-first 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 travelers 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 travelers as well as ordinary people, each with different perspectives, through the lens of gender, social class and cultural background, and considers how fictional tr