For an accessible, comprehensive global survey of the world’s major
civilizations, Adler and Pouwels’s WORLD CIVILIZATIONS, International Edition offers a
great balance between detail and brevity.
This unique student-oriented text offers 54 short chapters accompanied by
strong pedagogy and critical thinking tools, giving instructors the flexibility to assign
a wide range of major topics in world history in a variety of different ways, plus making
learning more manageable for students.
Built on the authors’ nearly sixty years of combined teaching experience, the
Sixth Edition features increased coverage of Asia and Africa, strengthening the global
backbone of the text significantly. The focused treatment of topics throughout history
covers every major epoch and follows broad patterns and processes, while illuminating
history through specific examples and a particular emphasis on social and cultural topics.
Table of Contents
Part I: FROM HUMAN ORIGINS TO AGRARIAN COMMUNITIES, C. 100,000 – 500 BCE.
1. The Earliest Human Societies.
2. Mesopotamia.
3. Early Africa and Egypt.
4. India’s Beginnings.
5. Warriors and Deities in the Near East.
6. Ancient China to 221 BCE.
7. The Agrarian Revolution in the Americas.
Part II: CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WORLD, 500 BCE – 800 CE.
8. The Greek Adventure.
9. Greek Humanism, 800 – 100 BCE.
10. Rome: From City-State to Empire.
11. The Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity in the West, 31 BC – 800 CE.
12. Classical India.
13. Imperial China in Its Golden Age.
Part III: THE POST-CLASSICAL ERA, 800-1400 CE.
14. The Americas to the Fifteenth Century.
15. Islam.
16. Mature Islamic Society and the First Global Civilization.
17. Africa Joins the Global System.
18. The Mongols Unify Eurasia.
19. Japan and Southeast Asia.
20. Medieval Origins of Europe.
21. Late Medieval Europe and the Renaissance.
Part IV: EXPANDING WEBS OF INTERACTION, 1400 – 1700 CE.
22. A Larger World Opens.
23. Religious Division and Political Consolidation in Europe.
24. Western Asia in the Era of the Gunpowder Empires.
25. Africa in the Era of Expansion.
26. China from the Ming through the Early Qing Dynasty.
27. Japan in the Era of European Expansion.
28. From Conquest to Colonies in Hispanic America.
Part V: REVOLUTIONS AND THE AGE OF EMPIRE, 1600 – 1914.
29. The Scientific Revolution and Its Enlightened Aftermath.
30. Liberalism and the Challenge to Absolute Monarchy.
31. The French Revolution and the Empire of Napoleon.
32. The Early Industrial Revolution.
33. Advanced Industrial Society.
34. Europe: New Ideas and New Nations.
35. The Islamic World, 1600 – 1914.
36. Africa during the Age of Empire.
37. India and Southeast Asia under Colonial Rule.
38. China in the Age of Imperialism.
39. Latin America from Independence to Dependent States.
40. Modern Science.
Part VI: TOWARDS A GLOBALIZED WORLD, 1914 – PRESENT.
41. World War I and Its Disputed Settlement.
42. A Fragile Balance: Europe in the Twenties.
43. The Soviet Experiment to World War II.
44. Totalitarianism Refined: The Nazi State.
45. East Asia in a Century of Change.
46. World War II.
47. The Cold War.
48. Decolonization of the Nonwestern World.
49. The New Asia.
50. Africa’s Decolonization and Independence.
51. Latin America in the Twentieth Century.
52. The Reemergence of the Muslim World.
53. Collapse and Reemergence in Communist Europe.
54. A New Millennium.
816 pages, Paperback
