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World History, 8th Edition

William J. Duiker, Jackson J. Spielvogel

Copyright 2016
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World History 8th Edition by William J. Duiker/Jackson J. Spielvogel

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Overview
Meet the Authors
What's New
Features
Table of Contents
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Overview

Noted teachers and scholars William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel present a balanced, highly readable overview of world history that explores common challenges and experiences of the human past, and identifies key patterns over time. Thorough coverage of political, economic, social, religious, intellectual, cultural, and military history is integrated into a chronological framework to help students gain an appreciation and understanding of the distinctive character and development of individual cultures in society. This approach, with organization around seven major themes (Science and Technology, Art and Ideas, Family and Society, Politics and Government, Earth and the Environment, Religion and Philosophy, and Interaction and Exchange), helps students link events together in a broad comparative and global framework, thereby placing the contemporary world in a more meaningful historical context. Available in the following options: WORLD HISTORY, Eighth Edition (Chapters 1—30); Volume I: To 1800 (Chapters 1—18); Volume II: Since 1500 (Chapters 14—30).

Meet the Authors

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William J. Duiker

William J. Duiker is liberal arts Professor Emeritus of East Asian studies at The Pennsylvania State University. A former U.S. diplomat with service in Taiwan, South Vietnam, and Washington, D.C., he received his doctorate in Far Eastern history from Georgetown University in 1968, where his dissertation dealt with the Chinese educator and reformer Cai Yuanpei. At Penn State, he has written extensively on the history of Vietnam and modern China, including the highly acclaimed COMMUNIST ROAD TO POWER IN VIETNAM (revised edition, Westview Press, 1996), which was selected for a Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award in 1982—1983 and 1996-1997. Other recent books are CHINA AND VIETNAM: THE ROOTS OF CONFLICT (Berkeley, 1987), U.S. CONTAINMENT POLICY AND THE CONFLICT IN INDOCHINA (Stanford, 1995), SACRED WAR: NATIONALISM AND REVOLUTION IN A DIVIDED VIETNAM (McGraw-Hill, 1995), and HO CHI MINH (Hyperion, 2000), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. While his research specialization is in the field of nationalism and Asian revolutions, his intellectual interests are considerably more diverse. He has traveled widely and has taught courses on the history of communism and non-Western civilizations at Penn State, where he was awarded a Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the spring of 1996. In 2002, the College of Liberal Arts honored him with an Emeritus Distinction Award.

Jackson J. Spielvogel

Jackson J. Spielvogel is associate professor Emeritus of history at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, where he specialized in Reformation history under Harold J. Grimm. His articles and reviews have appeared in journals such as “Moreana,” “Journal of General Education,” “Catholic Historical Review,” “Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte,” and “American Historical Review.” He also has contributed chapters or articles to “The Social History of Reformation,” THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE: A DICTIONARY HANDBOOK, “Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual of Holocaust Studies,” and “Utopian Studies.” His work has been supported by fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and the Foundation for Reformation Research. At Penn State, he helped inaugurate the Western civilization course, as well as a popular course on Nazi Germany. His book HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY was published in 1987 (Seventh Edition, 2013). He is the author of WESTERN CIVILIZATION, first published in 1991 (Ninth Edition, 2015). Professor Spielvogel has won five major university-wide teaching awards. During the year 1988—1989, he held the Penn State Teaching Fellowship, the university's most prestigious teaching award. In 1996, he won the Dean Arthur Ray Warnock Award for Outstanding Faculty member, and in 2000 received the Schreyer Honors College Excellence in Teaching Award.

What's New

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The text has been updated throughout to reflect recent scholarship. New and revised material in the first half of the book includes discussion of early writing and currency in ancient China (Ch. 3); helots and women in Sparta (Ch. 4); Roman children and early Christianity (Ch. 5); Arab science and philosophy, the arrival of the Turks in the Middle East, and early Arab seafaring technology (Ch. 7); Chinese cartography and trade relations (Chapter 10); the role of peasant women (Chapter 12); and women in the Byzantine empire (new section in Ch. 13).
New and revised material in the second half of the text includes coverage of the Indian textile industry (Ch. 16); the lower classes and prostitution, mass leisure, and mass consumption (Ch. 20); Nazi culture and totalitarianism (Ch. 25); social and cultural conditions in Eastern Europe, and conditions in contemporary China (Ch. 27); conditions in contemporary Africa, and discussion of Arab Spring (Ch. 29).
New “Connections to Today” questions at the beginning of each chapter help students appreciate the relevance of history by asking them to draw connections between the past and the present.
New selections have been added to the “Opposing Viewpoints” feature. Examples include “The Governing of Empires: Two Approaches” (Ch. 1); “Women in the Roman and Han Empires” (Ch. 5); “Two Views of Trade and Merchants” (Ch. 12); “The Renaissance Prince: The Views of Machiavelli and Erasmus” (Ch. 13); and “Practical Learning or Confucian Essence: A Debate Over Reform” (Ch. 22).
Many new document boxes have been added. In the first half of the book, these include “'The Mandate of Heaven' in Ancient China” (Ch. 3); “Relations between Greeks and Non-Greeks” (Ch. 4); “Aztec Religion Through Spanish Eyes” (Ch. 6); “The Spread of the Muslim Faith” (Ch. 7); “A Chinese View of Africa” (Ch. 8); and “Pollution in a Medieval City” (Ch. 12).

Features

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WORLD HISTORY provides a solid narrative that students can actually read and understand. The authors artfully combine regional and global discussions, and provide a thematic framework to help students make comparisons and connections across cultures and time periods.
Seven central themes make the narrative more cohesive while helping students make connections and comparisons across chapters. These themes are: Science and Technology; Art and Ideas; Family and Society; Politics and Government; Earth and the Environment; Religion and Philosophy; and Interaction and Exchange. Each of the book's Comparative Essays, Comparative Illustrations, Opposing Viewpoints, and document boxes are keyed to one of these themes.
The book contains over 150 four-color maps and 400 pieces of artwork. “Spot maps” also appear in each chapter, highlighting critical details on smaller areas. Map captions and accompanying questions encourage readers to think beyond the mere appearance of each map and to make connections across chapters, regions, and time periods.
“Film & History” features analyze popular films using a historian's perspective to show students how movies represent, and sometimes misrepresent, the past. These features shine the spotlight on films—from iconic classics to recent blockbusters—such as: Gladiator (2000, Ch. 5); The Lion in Winter (1968, Ch. 12); The Mission (1986, Ch. 14); Marie Antoinette (2006, Ch. 18); Lawrence of Arabia (1962, Ch. 24); Triumph of the Will (1934, Ch. 25); The Iron Lady (2011, Ch. 28); and Gandhi (1982, Ch. 30).
“Opposing Viewpoints” features present two or more primary source documents representing differing perspectives on the same or related topics, providing students an opportunity for hands-on analysis. Accompanying critical-thinking questions can be assigned for individual or collaborative study. Topics include “Two Views of Trade and Merchants” (Ch. 12); “Practical Learning or Confucian Essence: A Debate Over Reform” (Ch. 22); “Soviet Repression in Eastern Europe: Hungary, 1956” (Ch. 26); and “Africa: Dark Continent or Radiant Land?” (Ch. 29).
“Comparative Essays” highlight similarities and differences between and among cultures. Topics include “History and the Environment” (Ch. 6); “Trade and Civilization” (Ch. 7); “Cities in the Medieval World” (Ch. 12); “The Rise of Nationalism” (Ch. 20); “Paths to Modernization” (Ch. 25); and “One World, One Environment” (Ch. 30). Each essay is keyed to one of the seven themes, helping students further identify connections.
“Comparative Illustration” boxes with accompanying critical-thinking questions enable students to see cross-cultural comparisons of rituals, art, war, and other topics. Examples include “The Afterlife and Prized Possessions” (Ch. 3); “Emperors, West and East” (Ch. 5); “The Stele” (Ch. 8); “Hagia Sophia and the Suleymaniye Mosque” (Ch. 16); “Painting—West and East” (Ch. 20); and “The Bombing of Civilians: East and West” (Ch. 25). Each illustration is keyed to one of the seven themes, helping students further identify connections.
Historiographical subsections examine how and why historians differ in their interpretation of specific topics. Topics include “The Spread of Humans: Out of Africa or Multiregional?”; “The Shang Dynasty: China's Mother Culture?”; “Africa: A Continent Without History?”; “Did Industrialization Bring an Improved Standard of Living?”; and “What Explains Japanese Uniqueness?”.
Pedagogical aids help students succeed. An outline, focus questions, and critical-thinking questions appear at the beginning of every chapter, and opening vignettes draw students into the material. Glossary terms are boldfaced throughout the text, and frequent subheads help students “chunk” the information. The Chapter Summary is illustrated with thumbnail images and combined with a Chapter Timeline. The Chapter Review includes “Upon Reflection” essay questions and a list of key terms to assist students in identifying major themes, figures, and events for study.

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Part I: THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE OF EMPIRES (PREHISTORY TO 500 C.E.).
1. Early Humans and the First Civilizations.
2. Ancient India.
3. China in Antiquity.
4. The Civilization of the Greeks.
5. The Roman World Empire.
Part II: NEW PATTERNS OF CIVILIZATION (500—1500 C.E.).
6. The Americas.
7. Ferment in the Middle East: The Rise of Islam.
8. Early Civilizations in Africa.
9. The Expansion of Civilization in South and Southeast Asia.
10. The Flowering of Traditional China.
11. The East Asian Rimlands: Early Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
12. The Making of Europe.
13. The Byzantine Empire and Crisis and Recovery in the West.
Part III: THE EMERGENCE OF NEW WORLD PATTERNS (1500—1800).
14. New Encounters: The Creation of a World Market.
15. Europe Transformed: Reform and State Building.
16. The Muslim Empires.
17. The East Asian World.
18. The West on the Eve of a New World Order.
Part IV: MODERN PATTERNS OF WORLD HISTORY (1800—1945).
19. The Beginnings of Modernization: Industrialization and Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century.
20. The Americas and Society and Culture in the West
21. The High Tide of Imperialism.
22. Shadows over the Pacific: East Asia Under Challenge.
23. The Beginning of the Twentieth-Century Crisis: War and Revolution.
24. Nationalism, Revolution, and Dictatorship: Asia, The Middle East, and Latin America from 1919 to 1939.
25. The Crisis Deepens: World War II.
Part V: Toward a Global Civilization? The World Since 1945.
26. East and West in the Grip of the Cold War.
27. Brave New World: Communism on Trial.
28. Europe and the Western Hemisphere Since 1945.
29. Challenges of Nation Building in Africa and the Middle East.
30. Toward the Pacific Century?
Epilogue: A Global Civilization.