History of the World

by Roberts, J.M.

• ISBN13: 9780195210439
• ISBN10: 0195210433
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-10-21
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

From the evolution of Homo Sapiens to the exploration of space, the vast landscape of human history appears in this authoritative, readable book. Evocatively illustrated, this work offers an outstanding one-volume survey of the major events, developments, and personalities of the known past. Illus. Maps.

Author Biography

About the Author: J.M. Roberts was, until his retirement in 1994, Warden at Merton College, Oxford University, and is the General Editor of The Short Oxford History of the Modern World and The New Oxford History of England.

Table of Contents

List of Maps
Preface
Before History - Beginnings
The Foundations	p. 4
Homo Sapiens	p. 15
The Possibility of Civilization	p. 24
The First Civilizations
Early Civilized Life	p. 32
Ancient Mesopotamia	p. 38
Ancient Egypt	p. 52
Intruders and Invaders: The Dark Ages of the Ancient Near East	p. 71
A Complicating World	p. 71
Early Civilized Life in the Aegean	p. 76
The Near East in the Ages of Confusion	p. 85
The Beginnings of Civilization in Eastern Asia	p. 95
Ancient India	p. 95
Ancient China	p. 105
The Other Worlds of the Ancient Past	p. 118
The End of the Old World	p. 128
The Classical Mediterranean
The Roots of One World	p. 134
The Greeks	p. 137
Greek Civilization	p. 149
The Hellenistic World	p. 168
Rome	p. 180
The Roman Achievement	p. 194
Jewry and the Coming of Christianity	p. 206
The Waning of the Classical West	p. 219
The Elements of a Future	p. 237
The Age of Diverging Traditions
Islam and the Re-making of the Near East	p. 252
The Arab Empires	p. 264
Byzantium and Its Sphere	p. 275
The Disputed Legacies of the Near East	p. 295
The Making of Europe	p. 312
India	p. 337
Imperial China	p. 352
Japan	p. 369
Worlds Apart	p. 379
Europe: the First Revolution	p. 390
The Church	p. 391
Principalities and Powers	p. 402
Working and Living	p. 408
New Limits, New Horizons	p. 417
Europe Looks Outward	p. 417
The European Mind	p. 427
The Making of the European Age
A New Kind of Society: Early Modern Europe	p. 436
Authority and Its Challengers	p. 452
The New World of Great Powers	p. 476
Europe's Assault on the World	p. 500
World History's New Shape	p. 521
Ideas Old and New	p. 535
The Great Acceleration
Long-Term Change	p. 556
Political Change in an Age of Revolution	p. 574
Political Change: A New Europe	p. 594
Political Change: the Anglo-Saxon World	p. 613
The European World Hegemony	p. 630
European Imperialism and Imperial Rule	p. 648
Asia's Response to a Europeanizing World	p. 662
The End of the Europeans' World
Strains in the System	p. 690
The Era of the First World War	p. 706
A New Asia in the Making	p. 731
The Ottoman Heritage and the Western Islamic Lands	p. 745
The Second World War	p. 756
The Shaping of a New World	p. 777
The Latest Age
Perspectives	p. 797
Population Changes	p. 797
Plenty	p. 801
The Management of Nature	p. 808
Ideas, Attitudes, Authority	p. 821
The Politics of the New World	p. 829
Cold War Beginnings	p. 829
Asian Revolution	p. 834
Inheritors of Empire: the Middle East and Africa	p. 847
Latin America	p. 860
Crumbling Certainties	p. 867
Superpower Difficulties	p. 867
Two Europes	p. 879
New Challenges to the Cold War World Order	p. 885
The End of an Era	p. 895
Epilogue: In the Light of History	p. 914
Illustration Sources	p. 923
Index	p. 928
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.