Peter N. Stearns is provost and professor of history at George Mason University. He received his Ph.D.
from Harvard University. Before moving to George Mason University, he taught at Rutgers University,
the University of Chicago, and Carnegie Mellon, where he won the Robert Doherty Educational
Leadership Award and the Elliott Dunlap Smith Teaching Award. He has taught world history for more than 15 years. He currently serves as chair of the Advanced Placement World History Committee and also founded and is the editor of the Journal of Social History. In addition to textbooks and readers, he has written studies of gender and consumerism in a world history context. Other books address modern social and cultural history and include studies on gender, old age, work, dieting, and emotion. His most recent book in this area is American Fear: Causes and Consequences of High Anxiety.
Michael Adas is the Abraham Voorhees Professor of History and a board of governor’s chair at Rutgers
University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Over the past couple of decades his teaching has focused on
patterns and processes of global and comparative history. His courses on race and empire in the early
modern and industrial eras and on world history in the 20th century have earned him a number of teaching prizes. In addition to texts on world history, Adas has written mainly on the comparative history of colonialism and its impact on the peoples and societies of Asia and Africa. His books include Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance, which won the Dexter Prize, and the recently published Dominance by Design: Technological Imperatives and America’s Civilizing Mission. He is currently writing a global history of the First World War.
Stuart B. Schwartz was born and educated in Springfield, Massachusetts, and then attended Middlebury
College and the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico. He has an M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University
in Latin American history. He taught for many years at the University of Minnesota and joined the faculty at Yale University in 1996. He has also taught in Brazil, Puerto Rico, Spain, France, and Portugal. He is a specialist on the history of colonial Latin America, especially Brazil, and is the author of numerous books, notably Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society (1985), which won the Bolton Prize for the best book in Latin American History. He is also the author of Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels (1992), Early
Latin America(1983), and Victors and Vanquished (1999). He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton). For his work on Brazil he was recently decorated by the Brazilian government. He continues to read widely in the history and anthropology of Latin America, Africa, and early modern Europe.
Marc Jason Gilbert is the holder of an NEH supported Chair in World History at Hawaii Pacific
University in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a former University System of Georgia Distinguished Professor of
Teaching and Learning. He received his Ph.D in history in 1978 at UCLA, where he built his own program
in world history out of a mixture of more traditional fields. He is a founding member of the World History Association and one of its initial elected officers. More than a decade ago, he founded and served as executive director of the Southeastern World History Association. He has codirected two Summer Institutes for Teaching Advanced Placement World History. He has attempted to bring a global dimension to the study of south and southeast Asian history in numerous articles and books, such as Why the North Won the Vietnam War.
In this Section:
1) Brief Table of Contents
2) Full Table of Contents
1) Brief Table of Contents
Part IV: The Early Modern Period, 1450—1750: The World Shrinks
Chapter 21: The World Economy
Chapter 22: The Transformation of the West, 1450—1750
Chapter 23: Early Latin America
Chapter 24: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Chapter 25: The Rise of Russia
Chapter 26: The Muslim Empires
Chapter 27: Asian Transitions in an Age of Global Change
Part V: The Dawn of the Industrial Age, 1750—1900
Chapter 28: The Emergence of Industrial Society in the West, 1750—1900
Chapter 29: Industrialization and Imperialism: The Making of the European Global Order
Chapter 30: The Consolidation of Latin America, 1810—1920
Chapter 31: Civilizations in Crisis: The Ottoman Empire, the Islamic Heartlands, and Qing China
Chapter 32: Russia and Japan: Industrialization Outside the West
Part VI: The Newest Stage of World History: 1900—Present
Chapter 33: Descent into the Abyss: World War I and the Crisis of the European Global Order
Chapter 34: The World between the Wars: Revolutions, Depression, and Authoritarian Response
Chapter 35: A Second Global Conflict and the End of the European World Order
Chapter 36: Western Society and Eastern Europe in the Decades of the Cold War
Chapter 37: Latin America: Revolution and Reaction into the 21st Century
Chapter 38: Africa, the Middle East, and Asia in the Era of Independence
Chapter 39: Rebirth and Revolution: Nation-Building in East Asia and the Pacific Rim
Chapter 40: Power, Politics, and Conflict in World History, 1990—2014
Chapter 41: Globalization and Resistance
2) Full Table of Contents
Part IV: The Early Modern Period , 1450–1750: The World Shrinks
Chapter 21: The World Economy
The West’s First Outreach: Maritime Power
The Columbian Exchange of Disease and Food
Toward a World Economy
Colonial Expansion
Chapter 22: The Transformation of the West, 1450–1750
The First Big Changes: Culture and Commerce, 1450–1650
The Commercial Revolution
The Scientific Revolution: The Next Phase of Change
Political Change
Chapter 23: Early Latin America
Spaniards and Portuguese: From Reconquest to Conquest
The Destruction and Transformation of Indigenous Societies
Colonial Economies and Governments
Brazil: The First Plantation Colony
Multiracial Societies
The 18th-Century Reforms
Chapter 24: Africa and the Africans in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Africa and the Creation of an Atlantic System
The Atlantic Slave Trade
African Societies, Slavery, and the Slave Trade
White Settlers and Africans in Southern Africa
The African Diaspora
Chapter 25: The Rise of Russia
Russia’s Expansionist Politics under the Tsars
Russia’s First Westernization, 1690–1790
Themes in Early Modern Russian History
Chapter 26: The Muslim Empires
The Ottomans: From Frontier Warriors to Empire Builders
The Shi’a Challenge of the Safavids
The Mughals and the Apex of Muslim Civilization in India
Chapter 27: Asian Transitions in an Age of Global Change
The Asian Trading World and the Coming of the Europeans
Ming China: A Global Mission Refused
Fending Off the West: Japan’s Reunification and the First Challenge
Part V: The Dawn of the Industrial Age, 1750–1900
Chapter 28: The Emergence of Industrial Society in the West, 1750–1900
Context for Revolution
The Age of Revolution
The Industrial Revolution: First Phases
The Consolidation of the Industrial Order, 1850–1900
Cultural Transformations
Western Settler Societies
Diplomatic Tensions and World War I
Chapter 29: Industrialization and Imperialism: The Making of the European Global Order
The Shift to Land Empires in Asia
Industrial Rivalries and the Partition of the World, 1870–1914
Patterns of Dominance: Continuity and Change
Chapter 30: The Consolidation of Latin America, 1810–1920
From Colonies to Nations
New Nations Confront Old and New Problems
Latin American Economies and World Markets, 1820–1870
Societies in Search of Themselves
Chapter 31: Civilizations in Crisis: The Ottoman Empire, the Islamic Heartlands, and Qing China
From Empire to Nation: Ottoman Retreat and the Birth of Turkey
Western Intrusions and the Crisis in the Arab Islamic Heartlands
The Rise and Fall of the Qing Dynasty
Chapter 32: Russia and Japan: Industrialization Outside the West
Russia’s Reforms and Industrial Advance
Protest and Revolution in Russia
Japan: Transformation without Revolution
Part IV: The Newest Stage of World History: 1900–Present
Chapter 33: Descent into the Abyss: World War I and the Crisis of the European Global Order
The Coming of the Great War
A World at War
Failed Peace and Global Turmoil
The Nationalist Assault on the European Colonial Order
Chapter 34: The World between the Wars: Revolutions, Depression, and Authoritarian Response
The Roaring Twenties
Revolution: The First Waves
The Global Great Depression
The Nazi Response
Authoritarianism and New Militarism in Key Regions
Chapter 35: A Second Global Conflict and the End of the European World Order
Old and New Causes of a Second World War
Unchecked Aggression and the Coming of War in Europe and the Pacific
The Conduct of a Second Global War
War’s End and the Emergence of the Superpower Standoff in the Cold War
Nationalism and Decolonization in South and Southeast Asia and Africa
Chapter 36: Western Society and Eastern Europe in the Decades of the Cold War
After World War II: A New International Setting for the West
The Resurgence of Western Europe
Cold War Allies: The United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
Culture and Society in the West
Eastern Europe after World War II: A Soviet Empire
Soviet Culture: Promoting New Beliefs and Institutions
Chapter 37: Latin America: Revolution and Reaction into the 21st Century
Latin America after World War II
Radical Options in the 1950s
The Search for Reform and the Military Option
Societies in Search of Change
Chapter 38: Africa, the Middle East, and Asia in the Era of Independence
The Challenges of Independence
Postcolonial Options for Achieving Economic
Growth and Social Justice
Delayed Revolutions: Religious Revivalism and Liberation Movements in Settler Societies
Chapter 39: Rebirth and Revolution: Nation-Building in East Asia and the Pacific Rim
East Asia in the Postwar Settlements
The Pacific Rim: More Japans?
Mao’s China: Vanguard of World Revolution
Colonialism and Revolution in Vietnam
Chapter 40: Power, Politics, and Conflict in World History, 1990–2014
The End of the Cold War
The Spread of Democracy
The Great Powers and New Disputes
The United States as Sole Superpower
Chapter 41: Globalization and Resistance
Global Industrialization
Globalization: Causes and Processes
The Global Environment
Resistance and Alternatives
Toward the Future