Yankee India

Using mariners’ logs, journals, letters, business papers and Indian commodities and curiosities brought home as gifts and mementos, Susan Bean presents a readable, scholarly and visually opulent study of material and cultural exchange. It is a beautifully illustrated story of America’s “commerce” with the subcontinent after independence from Britain in 1783. This is not only a question of trade but also the opening out of channels of influence in religion, culture and social mores. It is a valuable account of American orientalism which brought the Gita to New England.