The new history of the world / J.M. Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberts, J. M. (John Morris), 1928-2003.

Contributor:

Roberts, J. M. (John Morris), 1928-2003.

Phi Beta Kappa Library Trust Fund.

Standardized Title:

History of the world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World history.

Physical Description:

xv, 1232 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

Fourth revised edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003.

Summary:

For many of its half a million readers around the globe, J.M. Roberts' History of the World is one of the pivotal works of our era, a book of extraordinary ambition, clarity, and style. It offers a substantial, authoritative narrative of world history following the central notion that human history is the story of change, a deliberate shaping of experience and environment. Roberts presents thoroughly engaging chapters devoted to transformative centers of human creativity from the earliest hominids to the startling global events of the 21st century. One of the elements that has made the book uniquely appealing is its powerful vision and voice. The view is personal -- even idiosyncratic -- in the sense that it is built around particular themes that shape the author's historical vision. In The New History of the World, Roberts has completely revised his monumental work for the first time, taking into account the great range of discoveries that have altered our views on everything from early civilizations to post-Cold War globalism. The mapping has been brought up to date, and large portions of text have been rewritten, addressing events as recent as the relationship between the Arab and Western worlds in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In addition to the revisions, the book is now available in a reader's format -- ideally suited for a new generation of readers anxious to open their minds to the great narrative of the human species. Roberts' book is exceptional in its genuinely global and comprehensive nature, showing the development of different civilizations through the ages: from our origins on the African savannah to AD 2002. Like no other book, it succeeds in conveying the staggering diversity of the human experience across a vast range of circumstances and habitats. If there is one book anyone truly interested in history should read, this is it.

Contents:

Book 1 Before History - Beginnings

1 The Foundations 3

2 Homo Sapiens 18

3 The Possibility of Civilization 29

Book 2 The First Civilizations

1 Early Civilized Life 41

2 Ancient Mesopotamia 49

3 Ancient Egypt 66

4 Intruders and Invaders: The Dark Ages of the Ancient Near East 88

5 The Beginnings of Civilization in Eastern Asia 119

6 The Other Worlds of the Ancient Past 148

7 The End of the Old World 159

Book 3 The Classical Mediterranean

1 The Roots of One World 167

2 The Greeks 171

3 Greek Civilization 188

4 The Hellenistic World 212

5 Rome 227

6 The Roman Achievement 245

7 Jewry and the Coming of Christianity 260

8 The Waning of the Classical West 276

9 The Elements of a Future 301

Book 4 The Age of Diverging Traditions

1 Islam and the Remaking of the Near East 317

2 The Arab Empires 333

3 Byzantium and Its Sphere 345

4 The Disputed Legacies of the Near East 372

5 The Making of Europe 393

6 India 422

7 Imperial China 444

8 Japan 466

9 Worlds Apart 477

10 Europe: the First Revolution 489

11 New Limits, New Horizons 524

Book 5 The Making of the European Age

1 A New Kind of Society: Early Modern Europe 549

2 Authority and Its Challengers 570

3 The New World of Great Powers 598

4 Europe's Assault on the World 630

5 World History's New Shape 657

6 Ideas Old and New 674

Book 6 The Great Acceleration

1 Long-term Change 699

2 Political Change in an Age of Revolution 720

3 Political Change: A New Europe 745

4 Political Change: The Anglo-Saxon World 768

5 The European World Hegemony 789

6 European Imperialism and Imperial Rule 813

7 Asia's Response to a Europeanizing World 831

Book 7 The End of the Europeans' World

1 Strains in the System 863

2 The Era of the First World War 883

3 A New Asia in the Making 915

4 The Ottoman Heritage and the Western Islamic Lands 932

5 The Second World War 946

6 The Shaping of a New World 969

Book 8 The Latest Age

1 Perspectives 995

2 A New World Order 1039

3 Crumbling Certainties 1091

4 The Closing of an Era 1124

5 Openings and Closures 1148.

Notes:

"First published in Great Britain as the Hutchinson history of the world by Hutchinson in 1976"--T.p. verso.

"This fourth revised edition published in Great Britain as The new Penguin history of the world by Penguin Press/Allen Lane in 2002"--T.p verso.

"First published in the United States ... as History of the World by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1976"--T.p. verso.

Includes index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Phi Beta Kappa Library Trust Fund.

Related Work:

Roberts, J. M. (John Morris), 1928-2003. Hutchinson history of the world.

Roberts, J. M. (John Morris), 1928-2003. New Penguin history of the world.

ISBN:

0195219279 :

OCLC:

53021547