Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and Survivors

Spanning the globe and the centuries, Frances Karttunen tells the stories of sixteen men and women who served as interpreters and guides to conquerors, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, and anthropologists. These interpreters acted as uncomfortable bridges between two worlds; their own marginality, the fact that they belonged to neither world, underscores the complexity and tension between cultures meeting for the first time.

Between Worlds addresses the broadest issues of cross-cultural encounters, imperialism, and capitalism and gives them a human face.