The Penguin History of the World

Contents

List of Maps

Preface to the Sixth Edition

BOOK ONE

BEFORE HISTORY

Introduction

1 The Foundations

2 Homo Sapiens

3 The Possibility of Civilization

BOOK TWO

CIVILIZATIONS

Introduction

1 Early Civilized Life

2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3 Ancient Egypt

4 Intruders and Invaders

5 The Beginnings of Civilization in South Asia

6 Ancient China

7 The Other Worlds of the Ancient Past

8 Transformations

BOOK THREE

THE CLASSICAL AGE

Introduction

1 Remaking the Old World

2 The Greeks

3 The Hellenistic World

4 Rome

5 Christianity and the Western Transition

6 Classical India

7 Classical China

BOOK FOUR

THE AGE OF DIVERGING TRADITIONS

Introduction

1 The Central Eurasian Crossroads

2 Islam and the Arab Empires

3 Byzantium and Its Sphere

4 The New Middle East and the Making of Europe

5 India

6 Imperial China

7 Japan

8 Worlds Apart

9 Europe: The Possibility of Change

10 New Limits, New Horizons

BOOK FIVE

THE MAKING OF THE EUROPEAN AGE

Introduction

1 Qing China and Mughal India

2 A New Kind of Society: Early Modern Europe

3 Authority and Its Challengers in Europe

4 The New World of Great Powers

5 Europe’s Assault on the World

6 World History’s New Shape

7 Ideas Old and New

BOOK SIX

THE GREAT ACCELERATION

Introduction

1 Long-term Change

2 Political Change in an Age of Revolution

3 Political Change: A New Europe

4 Political Change: The Anglo-Saxon World

5 The European World Hegemony

6 Imperialism and Imperial Rule

7 Asian Metamorphoses

BOOK SEVEN

THE END OF THE EUROPEAN AGE

Introduction

1 Strains in the System

2 The Era of the First World War

3 The Making of a New Asia

4 The Ottoman Heritage and the Western Islamic Lands

5 The Second World War

6 Decolonization and Cold War

BOOK EIGHT

OUR OWN TIME

Introduction

1 Revolutions in Science and Perceptions

2 The Cold War World

3 Crises and Détente

4 The Closing of an Era

5 Openings and Closures

6 Whole World History