World Civilizations
The Global Experience, Volume I - Beginnings to 1750 (Chapters 1-22)
4th Edition
Published on 18. February 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
608 pages
978-0-321-18280-7 (ISBN)
Description
World Civilizations examines all the world's civilizations, including those in the Western tradition but also those civilizations sometimes neglected in world history texts. The primary goal of the Fourth Edition of World Civilizations is to present a truly global history-one that both discusses the development of the world's leading civilizations and also emphasizes the major stages in the interactions among different peoples and societies and maintains a focus on social history explores gender, class, economic, and intellectual issues, while examining patterns of inequality and human agency throughout world history.
More details
Edition
4th edition
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Pearson Education (US)
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Width: 254 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
1040 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-321-18280-7 (9780321182807)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Peter N. Stearns | Michael B. Adas | Stuart B. Schwartz
World Civilizations
The Global Experience, Volume I
Book
10/2006
5th Edition
Pearson
€61.89
Article is exhausted; no reprint
Previous edition
Peter N. Stearns | Michael B. Adas | Stuart B. Schwartz
World Civilizations
The Global Experience, Volume I - Beginnings to 1750
Book
09/2000
3rd Edition
Pearson
€81.71
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Content
Each chapter begins with an introduction.I. THE ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATIONS.
1. The Neolithic Revolution and the Birth of Civilization.
Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers.
Document: Tales of the Hunt: Paleolithic Cave Paintings as History.
Agriculture and the Origins of Civilization: The Neolithic Revolution.
Visualizing the Past: Representations of Women in Early Art.
In Depth: The Idea of Civilization in World Historical Perspective.
The First Towns: Seedbeds of Civilization
Global Connections: The Neolithic Revolution as a Basis for World History.
2. The Rise of Civilization in the Middle East and Africa.
Setting the Scene: The Middle East by 4000 B.C.E.
Civilization in Mesopotamia.
Visualizing the Past: Mesopotamia in Maps.
Document: Hammurabi's Law Code.
Ancient Egypt.
Egypt and Mesopotamia Compared.
In Depth: Women in Patriarchal Societies.
Civilization Centers in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The End of the Early Civilization Period.
Global Connections: The Early Civilizations and the World .
3. Asia's First Civilizations: India and China.
The Indus Valley and the Birth of South Asian Civilization.
Aryan Incursions and Early Aryan Society in India.
Document: Aryan Poetry in Praise of a War-Horse.
A Bend in the River and the Beginnings of China.
Visualizing the Past: Mapping the Rise of Civilizations.
The Decline of the Shang and the Era of Zhou Dominance.
In Depth: The Legacy of Asia's First Civilizations.
Global Connections: Contrasting Legacies: Harappan and Early Chinese Civilizations.
II. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD IN WORLD HISTORY.
4. Unification and the Consolidation of Civilization in China.
Philosophical Remedies for the Prolonged Crisis of the Later Zhou.
Document: Teachings of the Rival Chinese Schools.
The Triumph of the Qin and Imperial Unity.
In Depth: Sunzi and the Shift from Ritual Combat to "Real" War.
The Han Dynasty and the Foundations of China's Classical Age.
Visualizing the Past: Capital Designs and Patterns of Political Power.
Global Connections: Classical China an d the World and Affluence.
5. Classical Greece and the Hellenistic World.
The Persian Empire: Parallel Power in the Middle East.
The Political Character of Classical Greece.
The Hellenistic Period.
Creativity in Greek and Hellenistic Culture.
Document: The Power of Greek Drama.
In Depth: Defining Social History.
Patterns of Greek and Hellenistic Society.
Visualizing the Past: Commerce and Society.
Global Connections: Greece and the World.
6. Religious Rivalries and India's Golden Age.
The Age of Brahman Dominance.
In Depth: Inequality as the Social Norm.
Religious Ferment and the Rise of Buddhism.
Visualizing the Past: The Pattern of Trade in the Ancient Eurasian World.
Brahmanical Recovery and the Splendors of the Gupta Age.
Document: A Guardian's Farewell Speech to a Young Woman About to Be Married.
Global Connections: India and the Wider World.
7. Rome and Its Empire.
A Foundation Story.
The Development of Rome's Republic.
Document: Rome and a Values Crisis.
Roman Culture.
The Institutions of Empire.
The Evolution of Rome's Economic and Social Structure.
Visualizing the Past: Religions in Rome.
In Depth: The Classical Mediterranean in Comparative Perspective.
The Origins of Christianity.
The Decline of Rome.
Global Connections: Rome and the World .
8. The Peoples and Civilizations of the Americas.
Origins of American Societies.
Spread of Civilization in Mesoamerica.
Document: Deciphering the Maya Glyphs.
The Peoples to the North.
In Depth: Different Times for Different Peoples.
The Andean World
Global Connctions: American Civilizations and the World.
9. The Spread of Civilizations and the Movement of Peoples.
The Spread of Civilization in Africa.
Document: Myths of Origin.
In Depth: Language as a Historical Source.
Nomadic Societies and Indo-European Migrations.
Visualizing the Past: Varieties of Human Adaptation and the Potential of Civilization.
The Spread of Chinese Civilization to Japan.
The Scattered Societies of Polynesia.
Global Connections: The Emerging Cultures.
10. The End of the Classical Era: World History in Transition, 200-700 c.e. 250.
Upheavals in Eastern and Southern Asia.
Document: The Popularization of Buddhism.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
In Depth: The Problem of Decline and Fall.
The Development and Spread of World Religions.
Visualizing the Past: Religious Geography.
Global Connections: In the Wake of Decline and Fall.
III. THE POSTCLASSICAL ERA.
11. The First Global Civilization: The Rise and Spread of Islam.
Desert and Town: The Arabian World and the Birth of Islam.
The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam.
The Arab Empire of the Umayyads.
In Depth: Civilization and Gender.
From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era.
Document: The Thousand and One Nights as a Mirror of Elite Society in the Abbasid Era.
Visualizing the Past: The Mosque as a Symbol of Islamic the Civilization.
Global Connections: Early Islam and the World.
12. Abbasid Decline and the Spread of Islamic Civilization to South and Southeast Asia.
The Islamic Heartlands in the Middle and Late Abbasid Era
Document: Ibn Khaldun on the Rise and Decline of Empires.
An Age of Learning and Artistic Refinements.
Visualizing the Past: Patterns of Islam's Global Expansion.
The Spread of Islam to Southeast Asia.
In Depth: Conversion and Accommodation in the Spread of World Religions.
Global Connections.
13. African Civilizations and the Spread of Islam.
African Societies: Diversity and Similarities.
Kingdoms of the Grasslands.
Document: The Great Oral Tradition and the Epic of Sundiata.
The Swahili Coast of East Africa.
In Depth: Two Transitions in the History of World Population.
Peoples of the Forest and Plains.
Global Connections: Global Contacts and Internal Development.
14. Civilization in Eastern Europe: Byzantium and Orthodox Europe.
The Byzantine Empire.
Visualizing the Past: Women and Power in Byzantium.
The Spread of Civilization in Eastern Europe.
Document: Russia Turns to Christianity.
In Depth: Eastern and Western Europe: The Problem of Boundaries.
Global Connections: Eastern Europe and the World.
15. A New Civilization Emerges in Western Europe.
Stages of Postclassical Development.
In Depth: Western Civilization.
Western Culture in the Postclassical Era.
Changing Economic and Social Forms in the Postclassical Centuries.
Visualizing the Past: Peasant Labor.
Document: Changing Roles for Women.
The Decline of the Medieval Synthesis.
Global Connections: Medieval Europe and the World.
16. The Americas on the Eve of Invasion.
Postclassic Mesoamerica, 1000-1500 C.E.
Aztec Society in Transition.
Document: Aztec Women and Men.
In Depth: The "Troubling" Civilizations of the Americas.
Twantinsuyu: World of the Incas.
Visualizing the Past: Archaeological Evidence of Political Practice.
The Other Indians.
Global Connections: The Americas and the World.
17. Reunification and Renaissance in Chinese Civilization: The Era of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Rebuilding the Imperial Edifice in the Sui-Tang Era.
Document: Ties That Bind: Paths to Power.
Tang Decline and the Rise of the Song.
Tang and Song Prosperity: The Basis of a Golden Age.
In Depth: Artistic Creativity as a Means of Visualizing the Past.
Global Connections: China's World Role.
18. The Spread of Chinese Civilization: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
Japan: The Imperial Ages.
The Era of Warrior Dominance.
In Depth: Comparing Feudalisms.
Korea: Between China and Japan.
Between China and Southeast Asia: The Making of Vietnam.
Visualizing the Past: What Their Portraits Tell Us: Gatekeeper Elites and the Persistence of Civilizations.
Document: Literature as a Mirror of the Exchanges Between Civilized Centers.
Global Connections: East Asia and the World.
19. The Last Great Nomadic Challenges: From Chinggis Khan to Timur.
The Mongol Empire of Chinggis Khan.
Document: A European Assessment of the Virtues and Vices of the Mongols.
Visualizing the Past: The Mongol Empire as a Bridge Between Civilizations.
The Mongol Drive to the West.
The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History.
In Depth: The Eclipse of the Nomadic War Machine.
Conclusion: The Mongol Empire and the World.
20. The West and the Changing World Balance.
The Decline of the Old Order.
The Rise of the West.
Visualizing the Past: Population Trends.
Document: Italian Renaissance Culture.
Western Expansion: The Experimental Phases.
In Depth: The Problem of Ethnocentrism.
Outside the World Network.
Conclusion: 1450 and the World.
IV. THE WORLD SHRINKS, 1450-1750.
21. The World Economy.
The West's First Outreach: Maritime Power.
In Depth: Causation and the West's Expansion.
Toward the World Economy.
Visualizing the Past: West Indian Slaveholding.
Colonial Expansion.
Document: Western Conquerors: Tactics and Motives.
Global Connections: The Impact of a New World Order.
22. The Transformation of the West, 1450-1750.
The First Big Changes: Culture and Commerce.
Science and Politics: The Next Phase of Change.
Visualizing the Past: Versailles.
In Depth: Elites and Masses.
The West by 1750.
Document: Controversies About Women.
Global Connections: Europe and the World.
1. The Neolithic Revolution and the Birth of Civilization.
Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers.
Document: Tales of the Hunt: Paleolithic Cave Paintings as History.
Agriculture and the Origins of Civilization: The Neolithic Revolution.
Visualizing the Past: Representations of Women in Early Art.
In Depth: The Idea of Civilization in World Historical Perspective.
The First Towns: Seedbeds of Civilization
Global Connections: The Neolithic Revolution as a Basis for World History.
2. The Rise of Civilization in the Middle East and Africa.
Setting the Scene: The Middle East by 4000 B.C.E.
Civilization in Mesopotamia.
Visualizing the Past: Mesopotamia in Maps.
Document: Hammurabi's Law Code.
Ancient Egypt.
Egypt and Mesopotamia Compared.
In Depth: Women in Patriarchal Societies.
Civilization Centers in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The End of the Early Civilization Period.
Global Connections: The Early Civilizations and the World .
3. Asia's First Civilizations: India and China.
The Indus Valley and the Birth of South Asian Civilization.
Aryan Incursions and Early Aryan Society in India.
Document: Aryan Poetry in Praise of a War-Horse.
A Bend in the River and the Beginnings of China.
Visualizing the Past: Mapping the Rise of Civilizations.
The Decline of the Shang and the Era of Zhou Dominance.
In Depth: The Legacy of Asia's First Civilizations.
Global Connections: Contrasting Legacies: Harappan and Early Chinese Civilizations.
II. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD IN WORLD HISTORY.
4. Unification and the Consolidation of Civilization in China.
Philosophical Remedies for the Prolonged Crisis of the Later Zhou.
Document: Teachings of the Rival Chinese Schools.
The Triumph of the Qin and Imperial Unity.
In Depth: Sunzi and the Shift from Ritual Combat to "Real" War.
The Han Dynasty and the Foundations of China's Classical Age.
Visualizing the Past: Capital Designs and Patterns of Political Power.
Global Connections: Classical China an d the World and Affluence.
5. Classical Greece and the Hellenistic World.
The Persian Empire: Parallel Power in the Middle East.
The Political Character of Classical Greece.
The Hellenistic Period.
Creativity in Greek and Hellenistic Culture.
Document: The Power of Greek Drama.
In Depth: Defining Social History.
Patterns of Greek and Hellenistic Society.
Visualizing the Past: Commerce and Society.
Global Connections: Greece and the World.
6. Religious Rivalries and India's Golden Age.
The Age of Brahman Dominance.
In Depth: Inequality as the Social Norm.
Religious Ferment and the Rise of Buddhism.
Visualizing the Past: The Pattern of Trade in the Ancient Eurasian World.
Brahmanical Recovery and the Splendors of the Gupta Age.
Document: A Guardian's Farewell Speech to a Young Woman About to Be Married.
Global Connections: India and the Wider World.
7. Rome and Its Empire.
A Foundation Story.
The Development of Rome's Republic.
Document: Rome and a Values Crisis.
Roman Culture.
The Institutions of Empire.
The Evolution of Rome's Economic and Social Structure.
Visualizing the Past: Religions in Rome.
In Depth: The Classical Mediterranean in Comparative Perspective.
The Origins of Christianity.
The Decline of Rome.
Global Connections: Rome and the World .
8. The Peoples and Civilizations of the Americas.
Origins of American Societies.
Spread of Civilization in Mesoamerica.
Document: Deciphering the Maya Glyphs.
The Peoples to the North.
In Depth: Different Times for Different Peoples.
The Andean World
Global Connctions: American Civilizations and the World.
9. The Spread of Civilizations and the Movement of Peoples.
The Spread of Civilization in Africa.
Document: Myths of Origin.
In Depth: Language as a Historical Source.
Nomadic Societies and Indo-European Migrations.
Visualizing the Past: Varieties of Human Adaptation and the Potential of Civilization.
The Spread of Chinese Civilization to Japan.
The Scattered Societies of Polynesia.
Global Connections: The Emerging Cultures.
10. The End of the Classical Era: World History in Transition, 200-700 c.e. 250.
Upheavals in Eastern and Southern Asia.
Document: The Popularization of Buddhism.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
In Depth: The Problem of Decline and Fall.
The Development and Spread of World Religions.
Visualizing the Past: Religious Geography.
Global Connections: In the Wake of Decline and Fall.
III. THE POSTCLASSICAL ERA.
11. The First Global Civilization: The Rise and Spread of Islam.
Desert and Town: The Arabian World and the Birth of Islam.
The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam.
The Arab Empire of the Umayyads.
In Depth: Civilization and Gender.
From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era.
Document: The Thousand and One Nights as a Mirror of Elite Society in the Abbasid Era.
Visualizing the Past: The Mosque as a Symbol of Islamic the Civilization.
Global Connections: Early Islam and the World.
12. Abbasid Decline and the Spread of Islamic Civilization to South and Southeast Asia.
The Islamic Heartlands in the Middle and Late Abbasid Era
Document: Ibn Khaldun on the Rise and Decline of Empires.
An Age of Learning and Artistic Refinements.
Visualizing the Past: Patterns of Islam's Global Expansion.
The Spread of Islam to Southeast Asia.
In Depth: Conversion and Accommodation in the Spread of World Religions.
Global Connections.
13. African Civilizations and the Spread of Islam.
African Societies: Diversity and Similarities.
Kingdoms of the Grasslands.
Document: The Great Oral Tradition and the Epic of Sundiata.
The Swahili Coast of East Africa.
In Depth: Two Transitions in the History of World Population.
Peoples of the Forest and Plains.
Global Connections: Global Contacts and Internal Development.
14. Civilization in Eastern Europe: Byzantium and Orthodox Europe.
The Byzantine Empire.
Visualizing the Past: Women and Power in Byzantium.
The Spread of Civilization in Eastern Europe.
Document: Russia Turns to Christianity.
In Depth: Eastern and Western Europe: The Problem of Boundaries.
Global Connections: Eastern Europe and the World.
15. A New Civilization Emerges in Western Europe.
Stages of Postclassical Development.
In Depth: Western Civilization.
Western Culture in the Postclassical Era.
Changing Economic and Social Forms in the Postclassical Centuries.
Visualizing the Past: Peasant Labor.
Document: Changing Roles for Women.
The Decline of the Medieval Synthesis.
Global Connections: Medieval Europe and the World.
16. The Americas on the Eve of Invasion.
Postclassic Mesoamerica, 1000-1500 C.E.
Aztec Society in Transition.
Document: Aztec Women and Men.
In Depth: The "Troubling" Civilizations of the Americas.
Twantinsuyu: World of the Incas.
Visualizing the Past: Archaeological Evidence of Political Practice.
The Other Indians.
Global Connections: The Americas and the World.
17. Reunification and Renaissance in Chinese Civilization: The Era of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Rebuilding the Imperial Edifice in the Sui-Tang Era.
Document: Ties That Bind: Paths to Power.
Tang Decline and the Rise of the Song.
Tang and Song Prosperity: The Basis of a Golden Age.
In Depth: Artistic Creativity as a Means of Visualizing the Past.
Global Connections: China's World Role.
18. The Spread of Chinese Civilization: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
Japan: The Imperial Ages.
The Era of Warrior Dominance.
In Depth: Comparing Feudalisms.
Korea: Between China and Japan.
Between China and Southeast Asia: The Making of Vietnam.
Visualizing the Past: What Their Portraits Tell Us: Gatekeeper Elites and the Persistence of Civilizations.
Document: Literature as a Mirror of the Exchanges Between Civilized Centers.
Global Connections: East Asia and the World.
19. The Last Great Nomadic Challenges: From Chinggis Khan to Timur.
The Mongol Empire of Chinggis Khan.
Document: A European Assessment of the Virtues and Vices of the Mongols.
Visualizing the Past: The Mongol Empire as a Bridge Between Civilizations.
The Mongol Drive to the West.
The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History.
In Depth: The Eclipse of the Nomadic War Machine.
Conclusion: The Mongol Empire and the World.
20. The West and the Changing World Balance.
The Decline of the Old Order.
The Rise of the West.
Visualizing the Past: Population Trends.
Document: Italian Renaissance Culture.
Western Expansion: The Experimental Phases.
In Depth: The Problem of Ethnocentrism.
Outside the World Network.
Conclusion: 1450 and the World.
IV. THE WORLD SHRINKS, 1450-1750.
21. The World Economy.
The West's First Outreach: Maritime Power.
In Depth: Causation and the West's Expansion.
Toward the World Economy.
Visualizing the Past: West Indian Slaveholding.
Colonial Expansion.
Document: Western Conquerors: Tactics and Motives.
Global Connections: The Impact of a New World Order.
22. The Transformation of the West, 1450-1750.
The First Big Changes: Culture and Commerce.
Science and Politics: The Next Phase of Change.
Visualizing the Past: Versailles.
In Depth: Elites and Masses.
The West by 1750.
Document: Controversies About Women.
Global Connections: Europe and the World.