Description
Book SynopsisWorld History: A Concise Thematic Analysis presents the highly anticipated second edition of the most affordable and accessible survey of world history designed for use at the college level.
- An engaging narrative that contextualizes history and does not drown students in a sea of facts
- Offers a comparative analysis of the great civilizations of Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas
- Addresses themes of population dynamics, food production challenges, disease history, warfare, and other major issues for civilizations
- Features new interior design and organization to enhance user experience
- Instructor's test bank available online at www.wiley.com/go/wallech
Table of ContentsIntroduction x
Unit One The Ancient World 1
THEMES: The artificial existence of civilization
The biology of civilization
The geography of civilization
The climate of civilization
The relationship between belief and action
Chapter 1 Biology and World History 5
Civilization and Nomads
Climate 12
The Geography of Cultivation 14
The Domestication of Animals 20
Urban Development 24
The Nomads 27
Disease History 28
Suggested Reading 31
Chapter 2 Mesopotamia 33
The Land between the Rivers
A Temple Economy 34
The Causes of Trade 35
Kings, War, and Ecocide 37
The Art of Writing and Hammurabi’s Code 39
The General Matrix of Civilization 41
The Dawn of Religion: Creation Myths 42
Iron and Mesopotamia 44
The Hebrews 47
The Emergence of Monotheism 48
Suggested Reading s 51
Chapter 3 Pre-Islamic Africa 52
Egyptian, Nilotic, and Sub-Saharan Africa
Egypt, the Gift of the Nile 52
The Archaic Period (ca. 3100–2700 BCE) and the Pyramid Age of the Old Kingdom (ca. 2700–2200 BCE) 57
The First Intermediate Period (ca. 2200–2000 BCE) and the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2000–1786 BCE) 59
The Hyksos and Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1786–1575 BCE) and the New Kingdom (ca. 1575–1050 BCE) 60
Special Topic: The Distant but Powerful Link between Pacific Currents and Egyptian Floods 61
Egypt and the Iron Age 65
Nilotic Africa 66
Sub-Saharan Africa 70
Iron 73
Suggested Reading 75
Chapter 4 India 76
From the Indus to the Ganges
Iron, Rice, and India 80
Indian Religions 83
Religious Opposition 87
The Maturation of India’s Faiths 89
Suggested Reading 90
Chapter 5 China 91
The Yellow River Civilization
The Land and the People 91
Mythological China 93
The Bronze Age: The Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynsties 94
The Iron Age: Economic, Military, and Commercial Revolutions 97
The Golden Age of Classical Chinese Philosophy 98
China’s First Empire: The Qin and Han Dynasties 102
Centers of Power within and beyond the Han Empire 107
Special Topic: Lady Lu: Empress Dowager 108
Suggested Reading 110
Chapter 6 The Nomads’ Trade 111
and the Great Migrations
The First Wave of Mass Migrations: The Wheel, the Chariot, and Nomads 112
A Second Wave of Migrations: The Iron Age 118
Cavalry: The Third Wave of Migrations 123
Suggested Reading 126
Chapter 7 Greece 127
The Rainfall Zone
Network Cities and the Special Case of Athens 128
The Role of Coins in Athenian History 131
The Limits of Democracy 133
Sparta 134
The Failure of Greek Politics 135
Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great, and the Hellenistic World 136
Greek Philosophy 138
Physics 139
Math and Logic: Metaphysics 140
Socrates and his Followers 141
Drama 143
The Origins of History 145
Suggested Reading 146
Chapter 8 The Hellenistic East and Persia 147
A Cultural Bridge
The Hellenistic East 147
Diffusion of Hellenism to the East 149
Kings, Cities, and Soldiers 151
Hellenistic Philosophy 154
The Stoics 157
One God, One Lord 158
The Persians 160
The Persian Sassanian Empire (224–651 CE) 164
Khusro I and the Height of the Sassanian Empire 168
Suggested Reading 169
Chapter 9 Rome 170
From Citizenship to Imperial Rule
Part One: The Republic 170
Part Two: The Empire 176
Roman Society 179
Roman Philosophy 181
Christianity 183
Suggested Reading 188
Chapter 10 Origins of Native American Cultures 189
Geographic Isolation
Origins of the Americas’ First Cities 192
Mesoamerica 193
Teotihuacán 195
The Maya 196
South America 198
Elsewhere in the Americas 200
Suggested Reading 201
Chapter 11 The Fall of The Ancient Eurasian World 203
Rome, Han China, and Gupta India
Trade, Disease, and Religious Ideas 204
Special Topic: Manichaeism 207
Internal Decay: The Roman Story 207
Special Topic: Malaria 210
Special Topic: Smallpox 211
The Han Dynasty, 206 BCE–220 CE 214
Chaos and Religion: Buddhism and Daoism 219
The Last Days of the Han 221
Gupta India: The Great Exception 222
The Nomads 224
Suggested Reading 227
Unit Two The Middle Years 229
THEMES: Culture
Learned
Shared
Symbolic
Integrated
Chapter 12 The Rise of Islam 233
The Ancient Near East Becomes the Middle East
The Prophecy 233
The Pillars of Islam 235
The Umma 239
The Caliphs 240
Suggested Reading 245
Chapter 13 China in an Era of Recovery and Cultures on the Fringe 246
Korea, Japan, and the Mongols
China’s Second Empire: Sui and Tang Dynasties 247
The Tang Dynasty, 618–907 248
The Song Dynasty, 960–1127 254
The Yuan Dynasty, 1279–1368: The Mongol Conquest of China 259
Sinicization: The Influence of Chinese Culture on Korea, Japan, and Mongolia 262
Korea 263
Japan 266
The Mongols: The End of Nomadism 275
Suggested Reading 279
Chapter 14 India and Islam 280
An Era of Political Chaos
Internal Fragmentation 282
The Arrival of Islam 285
Hindu Revival 287
Delhi Sultanate 289
Dhimmis, Being Cared for by the Faithful 290
Suggested Reading 293
Chapter 15 The European Middle Ages 294
The Failure of Tradition
Part One: The Early Middle Ages, 500–1000 295
Part Two: The Byzantine Empire 300
Part Three: Europe and the High Middle Ages, 1000–1300 303
Special Topic: The Magna Carta 311
Part Four: The Late Middle Ages, 1300–1450 319
Special Topic: The Bubonic Plague 321
Special Topic: Joan of Arc 325
Part Five: The Renaissance 328
Suggested Reading 337
Chapter 16 Islamic Africa 339
A Complex Pattern of Cultures
Corporate Lineage and State Formation after 500 340
Muslim Africa 341
Special Topic: Abu Abdullah Mohammed Battuta 343
South Africa 352
Suggested Reading 353
Chapter 17 The Americas 355
A Time of Trouble
The Toltecs 357
The Aztecs 359
Special Topic: Ixiptla: An Aztec God-Representative 362
The Incas 363
North America 366
The Unmistakable Influence of Isolation 370
Suggested Reading 370
Credits C-1
Index I-1
