Leading historians and archaeologists offer a comprehensive introduction to the increasingly entangled worlds that spanned the globe between 600 and 1350 CE.The period between the seventh and fourteenth centuries is hardly thought of as an era of globalization. Entire societies in the Americas, Australia, and Oceania developed in relative isolation from other parts of the world. Even on the interconnected landmass of Eurafrasia, many people had little to do with pr...

A hugely interesting set of essays, reflecting on a variety of ways in which medieval history has developed to the present time. Scholarship of the highest standard, deeply thought-provoking and deeply engaged with the inheritances and future tasks of medieval academic history. The collection will be essential reading for all medievalists. John Arnold, Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge.Medieval history is present in manyforms in our world. Monuments from the Mi...

A "monumental" account of the rise and fall of languages, with "many fresh insights, useful historical anecdotes, and charming linguistic oddities" ( Chicago Tribune).Nicholas Ostler's Empires of the Word is the first history of the world's great tongues, gloriously celebrating the wonder of words that bind communities together and make possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it. From the uncanny resilience of Chinese throu...

The riveting story of the Germania and its incarnations and exploitations through the ages.The pope wanted it, Montesquieu used it, and the Nazis pilfered an Italian noble's villa to get it: the Germania, by the Roman historian Tacitus, took on a life of its own as both an object and an ideology. When Tacitus wrote a not-very-flattering little book about the ancient Germans in 98 CE, at the height of the Roman Empire, he could not have foreseen that the Nazis would extol it as "a b...

"New insights, especially into the remarkable developments of Asian worlds in a millennium of Asian predominance. . . . [A] thoughtful, innovative history." —David Landes, Professor of Economics and History, emeritus, Harvard UniversityWhile European civilization stagnated in the "Dark Ages," Asia flourished as the wellspring of science, philosophy, and religion. Linked together by a web of spiritual, commercial, and intellectual connections, the distant regions of...

"The most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to recount and explain the whole history of mankind." —H. R. Trevor-Roper, The New York Times Book ReviewThe Rise of the West, winner of the National Book Award for history in 1964, is famous for its ambitious scope and intellectual rigor. In it, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that a number of separate civilizations pursued essentially independent care...

Thousands of years ago, seafront clans in Denmark began speaking the earliest form of Germanic language--the first of six "signal events" that Ruth Sanders highlights in this marvelous history of the German language. Blending linguistic, anthropological, and historical research, Sanders presents a brilliant biography of the language as it evolved across the millennia. She sheds light on the influence of such events as the bloody three-day Battle of Kalkriese, which permanently halted the i...

Five thousand years ago there began the most momentous revolution in human history. Starting in Mesopotamia, city civilization emerged for the first time on earth, to be followed in Egypt, India, China and the Americas. The ideals of these ancient civilizations still shape the lives of the majority of mankind. In Search of the First Civilizations (previously published as Legacy) asks the intriguing question: what is civilization? Did it mean the same to the Chinese, the Indians and the Gre...

A pioneering work that presents an effective, well-organized, and concise account of the development of historiography in Western culture.Neither a handbook nor an encyclopedia, this up-to-date third edition of Ernst Breisach's Historiography narrates and interprets the development of historiography from its origins in Greek poetry to the present, with compelling sections on postmodernism, deconstructionism, African-American history, women's history, micro...

**A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice"A mighty, polymathic work, equally at home in all four corners of the globe.…It is a gift to be savored." —Chris Vognar, Boston GlobeIn Culture, acclaimed author, professor, and public intellectual Martin Puchner takes us on a breakneck tour through pivotal moments in world history, providing a global introduction to the arts and humanities in one engaging volume.**What good are the arts? Why ...

In his biography of Charles V Harald Kleidschmidt paints a vivid portrait of one of the most intriguing of the great European monarchs.

In The World from 1450 to 1700, historian John Wills takes a fresh look at one of the most fascinating and tumultuous periods in world history. Assuming a global perspective, rather than the traditional Eurocentric view, Wills traces the interwoven changes that led from the world of Columbus, Luther, and the Mughal emperor Babur to the world of Locke, Louis XIV, and the Kangxi emperor. The book's multi-centered approach explores historical events not in isolation but rather in a dynamic ...