Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 320
Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-5381-2702-5 • Hardback • July 2019 • $89.00 • (£68.00)
978-1-5381-2703-2 • Paperback • July 2019 • $32.00 • (£25.00)
978-1-5381-2704-9 • eBook • July 2019 • $30.00 • (£22.95)
Robert B. Marks is professor emeritus of history and environmental studies at Whittier College. His books include China: Its Environment and History. He is the recipient of Whittier College’s Harry W. Nerhood Teaching Excellence Award.
List of Figures and Maps Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: The Rise of the West? The Rise of the West Eurocentrism Stories and Historical Narratives The Elements of an Environmentally Grounded Non-Eurocentric Narrative Chapter One: The Material and Trading Worlds, circa 1400 The Biological Old RegimeThe World and Its Trading System circa 1400 The Black Death: A Mid-Fourteenth-Century Conjuncture Conclusion: The Biological Old Regime Chapter Two: Starting with ChinaChinaIndia and the Indian Ocean Dar al-Islam, “The Abode of Islam” Africa Europe and the Gunpowder Epic Conclusion Chapter Three: Empires, States, and the New World, 1500–1775 Empire Builders and Conquerors The Conquest of the Americas and the Spanish Empire The New World Economy Human Migration and the Early Modern World The Global Crisis of the Seventeenth Century and the European State System Chapter Four: The Industrial Revolution and Its Consequences, 1750–1850 Cotton Textiles New Sources of Energy and Power Coal, Iron, and Steam Tea, Silver, Opium, Iron, and Steam Conclusion: Into the AnthropoceneChapter Five: The GapOpium and Global CapitalismIndustrialization ElsewhereNew Dynamics in the Industrial World Nations and Nationalism The Scrambles for Africa and China El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third WorldSocial Darwinism and Self-Congratulatory Eurocentrism Conclusion Chapter Six: The Great Departure Introduction to the Twentieth Century and Beyond Part I: Nitrogen, Wars, and the First Deglobalization, 1900–1945 Part II: The Post–World War II and Cold War Worlds, 1945–91 Part III: Globalization and Its Opponents, 1991–Present Part IV: The Great Departure: Into the Anthropocene Conclusion Conclusion: Changes, Continuities, and the Shape of the Future The Story Summarized Globalization Into the Future Notes Index About the Author
In accessible prose, Robert Marks distills world history of the past six centuries to its essence. Truly global in scope, and fully attentive to environmental contexts, this book is ideal for the classroom: it will provoke both thought and discussion—and occasional disagreement.
— John R. McNeill, Georgetown University
This new edition accentuates the book’s strengths while remaining compact, highly readable, and easy to connect with contemporary concerns. Fair-minded but not bland, it has the potential to spark classroom discussion that conventional textbooks rarely have, while providing a helpful basic narrative around which to organize an appealing world history class.
— Kenneth Pomeranz, University of Chicago
Splendid, fresh, forceful, and efficient. Marks has a clear focus on the Eurocentrism of most of the textbooks on world history, and he has developed an effective, solidly grounded strategy to counter the problem. The ideas are challenging, and the prose is readable and engaging. Ideal for introductory surveys of world history.
— Edward L. Farmer, University of Minnesota
Always the favorite when it comes to incisive world history agenda-setting, The Origins of the Modern World has a fully developed overview, one that is big on humans and the history of the environment and encourages critical thinking on a global scale.
— Edmund Burke III, University of California at Santa Cruz
Terrific! It's far and away the best of its type I've found in over thirty years of teaching. It's clear, succinct, and yet wonderfully comprehensive. It brings together all the current thinking in world history in about as nice a package as can be imagined.
— Paul Solon, Macalester College
I love this book—and more important, students do as well. Nothing beats it for putting global perspectives on the table in a readable and intelligent way.
— Thomas Saylor, Concordia University
By far the best of the current world history books on the market. Its main strengths lie in its non-Eurocentric viewpoint, its clear narrative, and its brevity. I would (and have) unreservedly recommended the book to colleagues teaching in the field as well as to others seeking a quick introduction to the history of the world.
— Sarah Kovner, University of Florida
View the Preface and a Sample Chapter.- Concise, affordable, and accessible
- Offers students clear tools to use to understand world history narratives
- Provides a comprehensive framework for understanding early modern and modern world history
Constructs a new, non-Eurocentric explanation of global inequality - Engages new scholarship on the historical relationship of humans to the natural environment, including climate change
- Includes an on-line study guide
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Lecture Notes. The Lecture Notes provide the tables and figures from the text.