Born in New Delhi in 1961 in a family of civil servants and intellectuals – his father was an influential specialist of strategic studies and defence – Sanjay Subrahmanyam received his university degrees there, first teaching economics before becoming well known for his work on the history of India between the 16th and the 18th centuries. It was from an Indian point of departure that he went on to the develop, in Europe and the US, an “early modern global history” – the title of his Chair at the Collège de France – of which he remains the most brilliant representative. In this book, Subrahmanyam brings together some twenty essays written between 1995 and 2012, intended for a larger public and not merely specialists. In these popular essays, one sees the historian as an observer of political and cultural life, always concerned not to propose a “universal” approach but to produce a multipolar set of perceptions. The reader is taken from the past to the present and back, whether in a discussion of France and its regions, or Salman Rushdie, or V.S. Naipaul. Alma has already published two of Subrahmanyam’s major books: Vasco de Gama (2012) et Comment être un étranger (2013).