A History of World Societies, Volume 2: Since 1450

A History of World Societiesintroduces students to the global past through social history and the stories and voices of the people who lived it. Now published by Bedford/St. Martin's, and informed by the latest scholarship, the book has been thoroughly revised with students in mind to meet the needs of the evolving course. Proven to work in the classroom, the book's regional and comparative approach helps students understand the connections of global history while providing a manageable organization. With more global connections and comparisons, more documents, special features and activities that teach historical analysis, and an entirely new look, the ninth edition is the most teachable and accessible edition yet.

John P. McKay (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is professor emeritus at the University of Illinois. He has written or edited numerous works, including the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize-winning book Pioneers for Profit: Foreign Entrepreneurship and Russian Industrialization, 1885-1913 and Tramways and Trolleys: The Rise of Urban Mass Transport in Europe. 
 
Bennett D. Hill (Ph.D., Princeton), late of the University of Illinois, published English Cistercian Monasteries and Their Patrons in the Twelfth Century, Church and State in the Middle Ages, and numerous articles and reviews, and was one of the contributing editors to The Encyclopedia of World History. A Benedictine monk of St. Anselm's Abbey in Washington, D.C., he was also a visiting professor at Georgetown University.
 
John Buckler (Ph.D., Harvard University) taught history at the University of Illinois.  His published books include Theban Hegemony, 371-362 B.C., Philip II and the Sacred War, and Aegean Greece in the Fourth Century B.C.. With Hans Beck, he most recently published Central Greece and the Politics of Power in the Fourth Century. Patricia B. Ebrey (Ph.D., Columbia University), Professor of History at the University of Washington in Seattle, specializes in China. She has published numerous journal articles and The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, as well as numerous monographs.  In 2010 she won the Shimada Prize for outstanding work of East Asian Art History for Accumulating Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong. Roger B. Beck (Ph.D., Indiana University) is Distinguished Professor of African and twentieth-century world history at Eastern Illinois University. His publications include The History of South Africa, a translation of P. J. van der Merwe's The Migrant Farmer in the History of the Cape Colony, 1657-1842, and more than seventy-five articles, book chapters, and reviews. He is a former treasurer and Executive Council member of the World History Association.  Clare Haru Crowston (Ph.D., Cornell University) teaches at the University of Illinois, where she is currently associate professor of history. She is the author of Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675-1791, which won the Berkshire and Hagley Prizes. She edited two special issues of the Journal of Women's History, has published numerous journal articles and reviews, and is a past president of the Society for French Historical Studies.
 
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) taught first at Augustana College in Illinois, and since 1985 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she is currently UWM Distinguished Professor in the department of history. She is the coeditor of the Sixteenth Century Journal and the author or editor of more than twenty books, most recently The Marvelous Hairy Girls: The Gonzales Sisters and Their Worlds and Gender in History. She is the former Chief Reader for Advanced Placement World History.

Comprehensively revised to be more global and comparative.  With fewer chapters on Europe, increased cross-cultural comparisons, and new Connections features that explain how events in each chapter connect to larger global processes, the new edition’s clear and accessible regional framework helps students succeed in the world history survey.
Extensively updated with current yet accessible scholarship.  A team of teacher-scholars introduces students to the latest research and interpretations.  Significantly revised and new material includes Merry E. Wiesner-Hank’s new chapter on The Earliest Human Societies, Patricia Buckley Ebrey’s new section on Pacific Islanders, Clare Haru Crowston’s insights into the Atlantic World, and Roger B. Beck’s reorganized and updated chapters on the contemporary world.
New “Viewpoints” documents highlight the diversity within and across societies.  Viewpoints features in every chapter on a wide variety of topics – from “Chinese and European Accounts of the Mongol Army” to “Education for Indians” – offer paired primary documents and questions for analysis that offer practice in working with documents while illuminating the human experience. An expansive illustration program provides students with opportunities to develop skills in map and visual analysis.  More than 180 newly designed maps – including new spot maps that highlight an area under discussion – enhance students’ understanding of geography.  NEW Mapping the Past and Picturing the Past activities in every chapter teach students how to use maps and visual sources.   Enhanced media resources give you options for saving time and improving student learning. We know that your classroom changes every year, and so do our resources. Whether you’re interested in substantive lecture presentation materials, free online student quizzing, plentiful upgraded test questions, free primary documents -- or all of the above – we have options in PowerPoint, on DVD, or uploadable for integration with your local course management system. And if you want it all in one customizable course space, check out HistoryClass, at yourhistoryclass.com.