The Human Journey

by Reilly, Kevin

• ISBN13: 9781442213883
• ISBN10: 1442213884
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-08
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

The Human Journey offers a truly concise yet satisfyingly full history of the world from ancient times to the present. The book's scope, as the title implies, is the whole story of humanity, in planetary context. Its themes include not only the great questions of the humanities-nature vs. nurture, the history and meaning of human variation, the sources of wealth and causes of revolution-but also the major transformations in human history: agriculture, cities, iron, writing, universal religions, global trade, industrialization, popular government, justice, and equality.In each conceptually rich chapter, leading historian Kevin Reilly concentrates on a single important period and theme, sustaining a focused narrative and analytical perspective. Chapter 2, for example, discusses the significance of bronze-age urbanization and the advent of the Iron Age. Chapter 3 examines the meaning and significance of the age of classical civilizations. Chapter 4 explains the spread of universal religions and new technologies in the post-classical age of Eurasian integration. But these examples also reveal a range of approaches to world history. The first chapter is an example of current Big History, the second of history as technological transformations, the third of comparative history, the fourth the history of connections that dominates, and thus narrows, so many texts. Free of either an orthodox focus or mandatory laundry list of topics, this engaging and accessible book begins with our most important questions and searches all of our past for answers. Well-grounded in the latest scholarship, this is not a fill-in-the-blanks text, but world history in a grand humanistic tradition.

Author Biography

Kevin Reilly is professor of history at Raritan Valley Community College.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
Empires and Encounters in the Early Modern Era: 1450-1750	p. 215
Common Patterns across the World	p. 217
Patterns of Expansion	p. 217
Premodern Connections	p. 217
Early Modern Empires	p. 218
Gunpowder Revolution	p. 218
Patterns of Internal Change	p. 218
Population Growth	p. 218
Market-Based Economies	p. 219
Cities	p. 219
Religious and Intellectual Ferment	p. 220
Continuities	p. 220
Islamic Expansion: Second Wave	p. 221
The Ottoman Empire	p. 221
Ottomans and the Arabs	p. 222
Ottomans and the Persians	p. 222
Ottomans and the West	p. 224
The Mughal Empire	p. 224
Muslims and Hindus	p. 225
An Expanding Economy	p. 226
The Songhay Empire	p. 226
Religious Vitality and Political Decline	p. 227
An Islamic World	p. 227
Conversion	p. 227
Decline of Islamic Empires	p. 227
China Outward Bound	p. 228
China and the World	p. 229
The Tribute System	p. 230
New Forms of Chinese Expansion	p. 230
A Maritime Empire Refused: The Ming Dynasty Voyages	p. 230
A Road Not Taken	p. 230
Comparing Chinese and European Voyages	p. 231
Power and Religion	p. 231
Differing Motives	p. 231
Differing Legacies	p. 232
China's Inner Asian Empire	p. 232
Manchus Move West	p. 232
Empires of Many Nations	p. 233
Consequences of Empire	p. 233
China and Taiwan	p. 234
The Making of a Russian Empire	p. 235
Mother Russia	p. 235
"Soft Gold": An Empire of Furs	p. 235
Siberia and Beyond	p. 236
The Impact of Empire	p. 237
Russia and Europe	p. 238
Looking Westward	p. 239
Peter the Great	p. 239
The Cost of Reform	p. 240
Russia and the World	p. 241
Parallel Worlds	p. 241
The World of Inner Africa	p. 241
The Amerindian World	p. 242
The World of Oceania	p. 244
Conclusion: Durability of Empire	p. 244
The Roots of Globalization: 1450-1750	p. 247
The European Explosion	p. 249
Europe Outward Bound	p. 249
Momentum	p. 249
Opportunity	p. 249
Motivation	p. 251
A Changing Europe	p. 252
The European Renaissance	p. 252
The Reformation	p. 252
The Scientific Revolution	p. 253
The Making of an Atlantic World	p. 253
American Differences	p. 254
Conquest	p. 254
Disease and Disaster	p. 254
Plants and Animals	p. 255
Migrations	p. 256
Colonial Societies in the Americas	p. 256
Settler Colonies	p. 256
"Mixed-Race Colonies"	p. 257
Plantation Colonies	p. 257
North American Differences	p. 258
The Impact of Empire	p. 259
Africa and the Atlantic World	p. 260
Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade	p. 260
Demand	p. 260
Supply	p. 260
African Slavery	p. 261
The Slave Trade in Operation	p. 261
Counting the Cost	p. 262
Lost People	p. 262
Political Variations	p. 263
Economic Impact	p. 263
The African Diaspora	p. 264
The Slave Trade and Racism	p. 264
Europe and Asia	p. 264
Commerce and Coercion	p. 265
Portuguese in the Indian Ocean	p. 265
Competitors	p. 265
Limitations of Empire	p. 265
The Economic Impact	p. 266
The Silver Trade	p. 266
American Crops in Asia	p. 267
Missionaries in East Asia	p. 267
Jesuits in China	p. 267
Japan and European Missionaries	p. 267
Europeans in Oceania	p. 268
The Fruits of Empire	p. 269
A World Economy	p. 269
Eastern Europe in the World Economy	p. 269
Spain and Portugal in the World Economy	p. 269
Northwestern Europe in the World Economy	p. 270
Changing Diets	p. 270
Population Growth	p. 270
Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate	p. 270
New Knowledge	p. 271
The First World Wars	p. 272
Conclusion: Empire and Globalization	p. 273
Breaking Out and the First Modern Societies: 1750-1900	p. 275
Why Europe? A Historian's Debate	p. 278
Was Europe Unique?	p. 278
A Favorable Environment?	p. 278
The Advantage of Backwardness?	p. 278
The Absence of Unity?	p. 278
Science and Engineering?	p. 279
Society and Religion?	p. 279
Critics of Eurocentrism	p. 279
"Surprising Similarities"	p. 279
Competition from Afar	p. 280
"The Decline of the East"	p. 280
The Advantages of Empire	p. 281
Gold and Silver	p. 281
Markets and Profits	p. 281
Resources	p. 281
An Industrial Model	p. 281
The Industrial Revolution	p. 282
Toward Economic Modernity	p. 282
Machines and Factories	p. 282
New Wealth	p. 283
Urbanization	p. 284
Capitalism	p. 284
Death Rates and Birthrates	p. 285
Humanity and Nature	p. 286
Class and Industrial Society	p. 286
Aristocrats and Peasants	p. 286
"Only a Weaver"	p. 287
"Middling Classes"	p. 287
Working Classes	p. 287
Women, Factories, and the Home	p. 288
New Views of the "Home"	p. 288
Children	p. 288
Politics and War	p. 289
The Political Revolution	p. 289
Kings and Commoners	p. 289
Making New Societies	p. 292
The "Enlightenment"	p. 292
Liberalism	p. 292
Who Benefited?	p. 293
The Revolution beyond America and France	p. 294
Slave Rebellion and Independence Movements	p. 294
Challenging Old Oppressions	p. 294
Variations on a Theme	p. 294
The British and French Paths	p. 294
The German Path	p. 295
The Path of the United States	p. 295
The Russian Path	p. 295
New Identities, New Conflicts	p. 296
Socialism	p. 296
Utopian Socialism	p. 296
Marxism	p. 296
Socialist Parties	p. 297
Nationalism	p. 298
Nationalism as a Modern Idea	p. 298
The Origins of Nationalism	p. 299
Creating Nations	p. 299
The Power of the National Idea	p. 299
Feminism	p. 300
Roots of Feminism	p. 300
Feminist Beginnings	p. 300
The Achievements of Feminism	p. 301
Backlash	p. 302
Conclusion: Modernity as Revolution	p. 302
The Great Disturbance by Global Empires: 1750-1940	p. 305
Imperialism of the Industrial Age	p. 308
Imperial Motives	p. 308
The Tools of Empire	p. 310
Confronting Imperialism	p. 310
India	p. 311
Mughual Decline	p. 311
British Takeover	p. 312
Rebellion	p. 312
China	p. 313
China and the West	p. 313
Opium for Tea	p. 313
The Opium Wars	p. 314
The Taiping Rebellion	p. 314
The Ottoman Empire	p. 315
Africa	p. 315
Patterns of Change in the Nineteenth Century	p. 315
From the Slave Trade to Colonial Rule	p. 316
Resistance and Cooperation	p. 316
Russian and American Expansion	p. 317
Australia and New Zealand	p. 318
Global Imperial Economies	p. 319
A Second Wave of Globalization	p. 319
A Divided World	p. 319
India and Imperial Globalization	p. 320
Famine and Free Markets	p. 320
The Economics of Empire	p. 320
Africa and Imperial Globalization	p. 321
Forced Labor	p. 321
Cash Crops	p. 322
The Loss of Land	p. 322
Mining and Migration	p. 323
Global Migration	p. 323
Global Imperial Society and Culture	p. 324
Population Patterns	p. 324
Slavery and Race	p. 324
An End to Slavery	p. 324
The Growth of "Scientific Racism"	p. 325
Race and Colonial Life	p. 325
Western-Educated Elites	p. 326
New Identities	p. 327
Colonized Women	p. 327
European Reforms	p. 327
Coping with Colonial Economies	p. 327
Education and Opportunity	p. 328
Missionaries and Conversion	p. 328
Changing Defensively	p. 329
Trying to Catch Up	p. 329
Ottoman Modernization	p. 330
Comparing China and Japan	p. 330
Chinese Self-Strengthening	p. 330
Japan's "Revolution from Above"	p. 331
Perspectives on the Nineteenth Century	p. 333
Progress or Exploitation?	p. 333
Celebrating Western Achievement	p. 333
Alternative European Voices	p. 334
Critics from the Colonies	p. 334
Actors and Re-actors	p. 335
Change and Persistence	p. 336
Religious Revival and Consolidation	p. 336
Powers and Privileges	p. 337
Conclusion: Toward the Twentieth Century	p. 337
The Modern World and Global Realignments: The Past Century	p. 341
The European Crisis: 1914-1945	p. 343
World War I	p. 343
The Roots of War	p. 343
The Costs of War	p. 344
A Global Conflict	p. 345
Reverberations	p. 345
Capitalism in Crisis	p. 346
Racism and the Holocaust	p. 346
Another World War	p. 347
World War II	p. 347
A World Reshaped	p. 348
Revolution and Communism	p. 348
The Birth of Communism	p. 349
Russia	p. 349
Eastern Europe	p. 349
China	p. 350
Making Communist Societies	p. 350
Rural Communism	p. 351
Communist Industrialization	p. 351
Confronting Privilege and Inequality in China	p. 352
Totalitarianism and Terror	p. 353
The Communist World and the "Free World"	p. 353
The United States as a Global Power	p. 355
An American Century?	p. 355
Containing Communism	p. 355
An Empire of Culture	p. 357
Resisting the American Empire	p. 357
Achieving Independence	p. 358
The End of Empire	p. 358
Afro-Asian Struggles	p. 359
The Foundations of Anticolonialism	p. 359
Independence Achieved	p. 359
Variations on a Theme	p. 360
New Nations on the Global Stage	p. 361
The Rise of the Third World	p. 362
The "Third World" as an Idea	p. 362
Nonalignment	p. 362
A New International Economic Order?	p. 363
Resistance by the Rich	p. 363
The Debt Problem	p. 364
The Assertion of Islam	p. 364
The Revival of the Middle East	p. 364
The Roots of Islamic Renewal	p. 364
Islamic Renewal in Practice: The Case of Iran	p. 365
Islamic Assertion on a Global Stage	p. 366
Successes, Failures, and Fissures	p. 367
The Collapse of Communism	p. 367
Three Routes to the End of Communism	p. 367
The Soviet Union	p. 367
Eastern Europe	p. 368
China	p. 368
Explaining the Soviet Collapse	p. 368
The Chinese Difference	p. 370
The End of the Cold War	p. 371
Conclusion: Something New; Something Old	p. 371
Beneath the Surface of Globalization and Modernity: The Past Century	p. 375
More of Us: Population Growth in the Past Century	p. 376
A Demographic Transition	p. 376
Consequences	p. 377
Variations and Redistributions	p. 377
Enough to Eat?	p. 377
To the Cities	p. 377
On the Move	p. 378
Young and Old	p. 379
Debates and Controversies	p. 379
Too Many People?	p. 379
Controlling Population Growth	p. 379
Economic Globalization	p. 380
An Industrializing World	p. 381
Soviet Industrialization	p. 381
Industrialization in European Offshoots	p. 382
Newly Industrialized Countries	p. 382
From Divergence to Convergence	p. 382
A Densely Connected World	p. 383
A Deeply Divided World	p. 384
Progress for the Poor	p. 384
Failures and Instabilities	p. 385
Internal Inequalities	p. 386
Debating a Mixed Record	p. 387
Alternative Globalizations	p. 387
A Diminished World	p. 388
Defining the Environmental Impact	p. 388
Environmentalism	p. 390
Political Globalization	p. 391
The National Idea: Triumphant and Challenged?	p. 391
Anticolonial Nationalism	p. 391
Nationalism and Communism	p. 392
The Failure of Alternatives	p. 392
Challenges to the National Idea: Globalization	p. 393
Challenges to the National Idea: Ethnic Separatism	p. 393
Challenges to the National Idea: World Government	p. 394
The Democratic Idea: Challenged and Triumphant?	p. 395
Modern Democracy	p. 395
Gains and Setbacks	p. 396
Democracy after World War II	p. 396
Democracy in Decline	p. 396
A Resurgence of Democracy?	p. 397
Cultural Globalization	p. 398
Popular Culture/Global Culture	p. 399
Global Feminism	p. 400
Communism and Women	p. 401
Western Feminism	p. 401
Women's Movements in the Third World	p. 403
Feminism on a Global Scale	p. 404
Conclusion: Coming Together and Growing Apart	p. 404
Index	p. 409
About the Author	p. 429
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