When we first began to work on WorldCivilizations: The Global Experience,we did so out of the conviction that itwas time for a world history textbook that is trulyglobal in its approach and coverage and yet man-ageable and accessible for todays students. Ourcommitment to that goal continues with this AP*Edition of the text. Here we present a truly globalhistoryone that discusses the evolution and devel-opment of the worlds leading civilizationsandbalances that coverage with examination of themajor stages in the nature and degree of interac-tions among different peoples and societies aroundthe globe. We view world history not as a parade offacts to be memorized or a collection of the indi-vidual histories of various societies, but rather as thestudy of historical events in a global context. Thestudy of world history combines meaningful syn-thesis of independent development within societieswith comparative analysis of the results of interac-tion between societies.

Several decades of scholarship in world historyand in area studies by historians and other social sci-entists have yielded a wealth of information. Thechallenge is to create a coherent and comprehensibleframework for organizing all this information. Ourcommitment to world history stems from our con-viction that students will understand and appreciatethe present world by studying the myriad forces thathave shaped that world and created our place withinit. Furthermore, study of the past in order to makesense of the present will help them prepare to meetthe challenges of the future.

ApproachThis AP* Edition of World Civilizations: The GlobalExperience has been especially adapted for the AP*World History course and test. Rather than includ-ing the numerous, longer chapters that earlier edi-tions and most other texts otherwise devote to worldhistory developments before 500 C.E., this text sub-stitutes a single chapter on prehistory and early civi-lizations and a single part, composed of fourchapters, covering the classical civilizations of China,India, Greece, and Rome and the crucial develop-ments toward the end of the classical period. Thesefive chapters survey major patterns up to the post-classical era, at which point the more detailed treat-ment of the postclassical period can come into play.The goal is to provide students with a manageablepresentation that can then be supplemented by moredetailed library reading or handouts on particularissues (including additional map exercises) on theearly period of world history. The chapters highlightcharacteristics in the major civilizations, patterns oftrade and exchange within and among major soci-eties, and of course basic features of agriculturaleconomies. Thus, both comparative work and afocus on global processes can be applied to thisintroductory segment.

The two principal distinguishing characteristicsof this book are its global orientation and its analyti-cal emphasis. This is a true world history textbook.World Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP* Edi-tion, examines the histories of all areas of the worldand all peoples according to their growing or waning

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importance. It also considers what happened acrossregions by examining cross-civilizational develop-ments such as migration, trade, the spread of religion,disease, plant exchange, and cultural interchange.Civilizations or societies sometimes slighted in worldhistory textbookssuch as the nomadic societies ofAsia, Latin American societies, the nations of thePacific Rim, and the societies of nonurban sedentarypeoplesreceive attention here.

Many world history textbooks function as factualcompendia, leaving analytical challenge to the class-room. Our goal throughout this book has been torelate fact to interpretation while still allowing ampleopportunity for classroom exploration. Our analyti-cal emphasis focuses on how key aspects of the pastand present have been shaped by global forces suchas the exchange of technology and ideas. By encour-aging students to learn how to assess continuity andchange, the text helps them relate the past to the pre-sent. Through analysis and interpretation studentsbecome active, engaged learners, rather than passivereaders of the facts of historical events.

PeriodizationThis text pays a great deal of attention to periodization,an essential requirement for coherent presentation.World Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP* Edi-tion, identifies six periods in world history, each perioddetermined by three basic criteria: a geographical rebal-ancing among major civilizational areas, an increase inthe intensity and extent of interaction across civiliza-tions (or, in the case of the earliest period, cross-regional interaction), and the emergence of new androughly parallel developments in most, if not all, ofthese major civilizations. The book is divided into sixparts corresponding to these six major periods of worldhistory. In each part, basic developments of each periodare referred to in chapters that discuss the major civi-lizations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, andthe Americas, and in several cross-cutting chapters thataddress larger world trends. Part introductions identifythe fundamental new characteristics of parallel or com-parable developments and regional or internationalexchange that define each period.

After sketching the hunting-and-gathering phaseof human existence, the single chapter of Part 1, TheRise of Agriculture and Agricultural Civilizations,

provides an overview of the rise of agriculture and theemergence of civilizations in parts of Africa, the Mid-dle East, parts of Asia, and southern Europethesequence of developments that set world history inmotion from the origin of the human species untilabout 3000 years ago.

Part 2, The Classical Period, deals with the grow-ing complexity of major civilizations in several areasof the world. During the classical period, civilizationsdeveloped a new capacity to integrate large regionsand diverse groups of people through overarchingcultural and political systems. Yet many regions andsocieties remained unconnected to the increasinglycomplex centers of civilization. Coverage of the clas-sical period of world history, then, must considerboth types of societies.

The Postclassical Era, the period covered in Part3, saw the emergence of new commercial and culturallinkages that brought most civilizations into contactwith one another and with nomadic groups. Thedecline of the great classical empires, the rise of newcivilizational centers, and the emergence of a networkof world contacts, including the spread of major reli-gions, are characteristics of the postclassical era.

Developments in world history over the threecenturies from 1450 to 1750 mark a fourth period inworld historythe period covered in Part 4, TheWorld Shrinks. The rise of the West, the intensifica-tion of global contacts, the growth of trade, and theformation of new empires define this period and sep-arate it from the preceding postclassical period.

Part 5, Industrialization and Western GlobalHegemony, 17501914, covers the period of worldhistory dominated by the advent of industrializationin western Europe and growing European imperial-ism. The increase and intensification of commercialinterchange, technological innovations, and culturalcontacts all reflected the growth of Western powerand the spread of Western influence.

The 20th Century in World History, the focus ofPart 6, defines the characteristics of this period as theretreat of Western imperialism, the rise of new polit-ical systems such as communism, the surge of theUnited States and the Soviet Union, and a variety ofeconomic innovations, including the achievements ofJapan, Korea, and the Pacific Rim. Part 6 deals withthis most recent period of world history into the 21stcentury and with some of its portents for the future.

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trade, religious missionaries, exchanges of diseasesand plants, and wars. Diplomatic relations betweensocietieswhat we now call international relationsalso were organized. Many aspects of world historycan be viewed in terms of whether societies had reg-ular connections, haphazard interchange, or somemix of the two.

FeaturesThe features in World Civilizations: The GlobalExperience, AP* Edition, have been carefully con-structed and honed over the course of its earlier edi-tions. Our aim has been to analyze change andcontinuity.

Full-Color DesignThe AP* Edition of World Civilizations: The GlobalExperience is published in full color and in a largeformat. Full-color maps, specially developed to pro-vide a global orientation, aid students to easily rec-ognize and distinguish geographical features andareas. Full-color photos, with their thought-pro-voking captions, help bring history to life.

Part IntroductionsPart introductions define the characteristics of the

period of world history cov-ered in that part, examineparallel or comparabledevelopments that occurred

ThemesWe make world history accessible to todays studentsby using several themes as filters for the vast body ofinformation that constitutes the subject. Thesethemes provide a perspective and a framework forunderstanding where we have come from, where weare now, and where we might be headed.

Commonalities Among SocietiesWorld Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP* Edi-tion, traces several key features of all societies. Welook at the technologies people have developedforhumans were toolmaking animals from an earlydateand at the impact of technological change onthe physical environment. We examine social struc-ture, including the inequalities between the two gen-ders and among different social classes. We detail theintellectual and cultural developments occurringwithin various societies. We also discuss the role ofhuman agency: how individuals have shaped histori-cal forces. These four areastechnology and theenvironment, inequalities and reactions to inequali-ties, intellectual and cultural development, andhuman agencyare four filters through which toexamine any human society.

Contacts AmongCivilizationsLarge regional unitsthat defined aspects ofeconomic exchange,political institutions,and cultural valuesbegan to spring upmore than 5000 yearsago. These civiliza-tionsthat is, societiesthat generate and usean economic surplusbeyond basic survivalneedscreated a gen-eral framework for thelives of most peopleever since. But differ-ent regions had a vari-ety of interactions,involving migration,

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among different societies as well as the new kinds ofglobal interactions that arose, and identify the keythemes to be explored in the chapters that follow.Part introductions give students a context for ana-lyzing the content of each chapter as well as a frame-work for seeing how the chapters within a part relateto one another. Part timelines summarize the eventsof the chronological period covered.

Chapter IntroductionsIntroductions to each chapter identify the key themesand analytical issues that will be explained in the chap-ter. Chapter 3, for example, on the classical civilizationof India, emphasizes Indias distinctive and enduringcharacteristics. Whereas the focus in classical China wason politics and related philosophical values, the empha-

sis in India shiftedto religion andsocial structurecharacteristics stillapparent today.The introduction gives the reader a context for under-standing the similarities and differences between theclassical civilization of India and the classical civilizationof China in particular.

TimelinesEach part introduction begins with an extensive time-line that outlines the period under consideration. Thetimeline includes major events in all the societies dis-

cussed in the part. Each chapter begins with a time-line that orients the student to the period, countries,and key events of the chapter.

Section-Opening Focal Points

Focal point sections after eachmain chapter head give studentsa focus with which to under-stand the topic. In Chapter 24,on industrialization and imperi-alism, the first section of thechapter discusses how imperial-ism in Asia drew in the Euro-pean powers of the time. Thefocal point in that section intro-duces the contrasts between col-onizers who were willing toadopt the lifestyles of the peoplethey sought to rule, such as the

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Dutch in Java, and those who imposed Western-ization from early on, such as the British in India.This focus gives the reader a point of view withwhich to evaluate colonization during a partic-ular era, not just a set of places, dates, and eventsto memorize.

Visualizing the PastIn most chapters, a Visualizing the Past feature asksstudents to analyze pictorial evidence, maps, ortables to interpret historical patterns. Text accom-

panying the illustrations provides a level of analysis,and a series of questions draws the students intoproviding their own analyses. In Chapter 6, forexample, this feature illustrates, in both its text andits visuals, the importance of the mosque as a sym-bol of Islamic civilization.

DocumentsExcerpts from original documents are included inDocument boxes to give the reader contact with diverse

voices of the past. We share a firm commitment toinclude social history involving women, the nonelite,and experiences and events outside the spheres of pol-itics and high culture. Each document is preceded by abrief, scene-setting narration and followed by probingquestions to guide the reader through an analysis of thedocument. In Chapter 19 on early Latin America, forexample, the Document box presents a detailed state-ment not by the victor but by the vanquished: an edu-cated bilingual Peruvian Indian who composed amemorial outlining the history of Peru under the Incasand reporting on later conditions under Spanish rule.The text and the drawings that accompany it offer acritical inside view of the workings of Spains empire inAmerica from a Native American point of view.

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In Depth SectionsEach chapter contains an analytical essay on a topic ofbroad application. The essay is followed by questionsintended to probe student appreciation of the topic

and suggest questions or interpretive issues for furtherthought. For example, the In Depth section in Chap-ter 9, which covers the Byzantine Empire, steps asideslightly from the discussion of Byzantium and Ortho-dox Europe to look at the question of where one civ-ilization ends and another beginsa question stillrelevant today. How do we define states that sitbetween clearly defined civilizations and share somecharacteristics of each culture? The analytical argumentin this section encompasses contested borders, main-stream culture, religion, language, and patterns oftrade and looks more specifically at Poland, Hungary,and Lithuania, with elements of both western and east-ern Europe and Russia in their cultures. The questionsafter the analysis prompt the reader to think aboutthese difficult-to-define civilization border areas.

NEW Global ConnectionsEach chapter ends with a new sectionGlobal Con-nectionswhich reiterates the key themes and issuesraised in the chapter and makes clear their importancenot only to the areas of civilization discussed in thechapter but also to the world as a whole. For example,in Chapter 13, this new summary section emphasizesthat the spread of ideas, organizational models, andmaterial culture from a common Chinese centerspawned the rise of three distinct patterns of civilizeddevelopment in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. However,dierect influences from other parts of the world were

slight, because there was no sense that any other placehad examples worth emulating. The intensity of inter-actions within the east Asian region generated a degreeof isolation from the world beyond.

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Further ReadingsEach chapter includes several annotated paragraphsof suggested readings. Students receive reliable guid-ance on a variety of books: source materials, standardsin the field, encyclopedic coverage, more readablegeneral-interest titles, and the like.

On the WebEach chapter ends with a list of annotated Web sites.Every effort has been made to find stable sites thatare likely to endure. However, the annotations alsogive students the key words necessary to search forsimilar sites.

GlossaryThe comprehensive page-referenced glossary isanother feature that sets this book apart. It includes

conceptual terms, frequently used foreign terms, andnames of important geographical regions and keycharacters on the world stage. Much of world historywill be new to most students, and this glossary willhelp them develop a global vocabulary.

Organizational Changes to This EditionIn order to give the student a clearer chronologicalview of major world events, we have made a numberof changes to both chapter order and topical organi-zation within chapters.

Chapter 16 now emphasizes the world economy,rather than specifically stressing the importance of theWest in the world.

For reasons of connection among regions, thechapter on Africa and Africans in the age of the Atlanticslave trade, now Chapter 20, precedes the chapter onthe Muslim empires, now Chapter 21. This facilitatesconnections with Chapter 19 on the Americas.

The text of a number of chapters within Part 6,The 20th Century in World History, has been heavilyreorganized to give the student a clearer view of majorevents that affected the entire world: Chapter 28 nowdetails World War I and the crisis of the Europeanworld order; Chapter 29, the world in the 1920s;Chapter 30, the decade of the Great Depression andthe growth of authoritarian politics; and Chapter 31,World War II and the end of the European world order.

Chapter 35, Rebirth and Revolution, combiningtwo chapters of the previous edition, relates postWorldWar II events in China, Japan, Korea, and other coun-tries of the Pacific Rim.

Chapter 36 has been extensively revamped todeal with globalization and its challenges as the lead-ing themes of the 21st century.

AcknowledgmentsGrateful acknowledgment is made to the followingreviewers, who made many useful suggestions duringthe development of this AP* Edition.

Sharlene Sayegh, California State University,Long Beach

J. Michael Allen, Brigham Young University,Hawaii Campus

David R. Smith, California State Polytechnic,Pomona

PETER N. STEARNSMICHAEL ADASSTUART B. SCHWARTZMARC JASON GILBERT

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