A People's History of the World Since 1400

World history textbooks generally focus on politics, culture, and ideas. A People's History of the World takes a fundamentally different approach to understanding the nature of change over time on a global scale. Although politics, the history of ideas, and culture receive considerable attention, the ideas and cultural practices that animated the masses are given pride of place. This methodology reveals underlying continuities that are often masked when the frame is history from the top down. For today's students who often feel isolated from elites and frustrated by the difficulties of enacting change, a different approach can be both illuminating and empowering. From the ground up, global history looks quite different.

Jeff Horn is Professor of History at Manhattan College.

List of Maps
List of Figures and Tables
List of Features
Acknowledgements
Dedication
About the Author
An Introduction to A People's History of the World

Chapter 1. Isolation, Regionalism, and Exploration: The World in 1400
Connecting Regions: By Sea
Connecting Regions: By Land
Ecological Migration
Conclusion: A People's History?
Be An Historian: How Do We Know What We Know? Using Primary Sources

Chapter 2. Religious Practice in the Modern World
The Basis of Religious Authority
Comparative Theology: Patterns and Praxis
Ritual and the Making of Meaning
Conversion and Attitudes Toward Other Faiths
Conclusion: Skepticism, Belief, and the Protection of Religious Belief
Be An Historian: Religious Art
Debate: Conversion: Individual or Collective Decision?

Chapter 3. Imperialism and the Evolution of Empire, 1500-1800
Conquest, Conversion, and Cooptation: Old Tactics in a New Era
Imperial Models
The Columbian Exchange
Conclusion: Coincidence, Accidents and Structures -The Timing of Imperial Expansion
Be An Historian: Differing Accounts of the Same Event

Chapter 4. The Emergence and Spread of Gunpowder Empires: Political Change, 1500-1650
China and Japan Turn Inward
Islamic Conquest and Consolidation in South Asia
The Fragmentation of Africa Polities
Religious Warfare in Europe
Adaptation, Avoidance, and Recovery in the Western Hemisphere
Conclusion: Gunpowder Politics and the Military Revolution
Be An Historian: The Architecture of the Great Wall of China-The Secret Ingredient is the Sticky Rice
Debate: Religious Motivations for Political Action

Chapter 5. Life in Common: Community in the Modern World
Village Life and the Division of Labor
Marriage and Domestic Life
Parenthood and Childrearing
Conclusion: Living Together in the Twenty-First Century
Be An Historian: The Meaning of a Marriage Contract
Debate: The Double Standard

Chapter 6. The Exchange of Goods and Services: Trade
Necessities and Luxuries
Transportation
State Policies
Freeing Trade
Growing Volumes: Local, Regional, Global
Conclusion: Trade, the Engine of Growth and Globalization, and Its Discontents
Debate: Adam Smith: Theorist or Historian?

Chapter 7. Humans as Property: Slavery
The Experience of Slavery: Masters and Slaves
Europeans, Americans, and the Practice of Slavery
Getting Them There: Slave Trades
Liberation and Its Limitations
Conclusion: IT IS NOT ENOUGH
Debate: Did Europe Underdevelop Africa?

Chapter 8. Jockeying for Position: Political Change, 1650-1775
Retrenchment in the Islamic World
Adapting to a Wider World in Africa and the Americas
Centralization and the Impact of Colonization in Asia
Dynastic Struggle and Internal Development in Europe
Conclusion: Putting Early-Modern Politics in Perspective
Be An Historian: Treaties can be Tricky
Debate: What is the Basis of International Relations in a Monarchial System?

Chapter 9. Manufacturing a New World Economy, 1750-1914
Capital: Human and Financial
Technological Pathways and Worlds of Production
Exploitation and Profit-Taking
The Role of the State
Power Relations and Deindustrialization
Conclusion: Manufacturing Power and Popular Resistance
Debate: Was the Exploitation of Labor Necessary to a European Industrial Revolution?

Chapter 10. From Scarcity to Surplus: Modern Agriculture
Systems, Traditions, and Innovation
Technique, Technology, the Emergence of Industrial Agriculture, and Beyond
Labor and Land Tenure
Entrepreneurship and State Action
Conclusion: The New Constraints
Be An Historian: Evaluating Competing Claims
Debate: Benefits and Consequences of the Green Revolution

Chapter 11. Creation and Collapse: Revolutions and Political Change, 1775-1860
Reform, Revolution, and Reaction in Europe
Liberty and Equality in the Americas
New Patterns of Power Arise in Africa
Isolation and Integration in Asia
Conclusion: The Benefits to the People of the Age of Revolution: Short-term vs. Long-term
Be An Historian: Constitutional Rhetoric vs. Political Reality
Debate: Did the Enlightenment Cause the Age of Revolutions?

Chapter 12. "Haves" and "Have Not's": Power Relations and Imperialism, 1800-Present
Technologies of Power
Guns
Resistance Along the Nile
Scramble for Africa
Subjects, Citizens, Colonists, Colonized
Conclusion: Imperialism in the Twentieth Century
Debate: Are Imperialists Poor Historians?

Chapter 13. New Forms of Control: Decolonization and Economic Dominance, 1775-1914
New Ideologies and their Limitations: Revolutions as Decolonization
Slavery's Declining Impact
A New Political Economy of Empire
Decolonization and Nationalism: The Slow Disintegration of the Ottoman Empire
Conclusion: Decolonization in an Age of Imperialism
Debate: Is Decolonization a Revolution?

Chapter 14. Privation and Powerlessness in an Age of Plenty: Political Change, 1860-1945
Africa and Asia Under European Domination
Economic Integration and Political Isolation in the Americas: Myths and Realities of the American Dream
Europe: From the Heights to the Depths
The Human Cost of Total Wars
Conclusion: Learning from Your Mistakes
Be An Historian: Is Seeing Believing?
Debate: Why was Socialism so Popular?

Chapter 15. "Machines as the Measure of Men"?: The Changing Basis of Industrial Power, 1914-Present
The Apogee of the Second Industrial Revolution (1914-45)
The New Model: Soviet-Style Industrialization
Corporate Management of Production: Capital and Labor after 1945
Manufacturing and the Information Economy
Conclusion: Industry 4.0?
Be An Historian: News is a First Rough-Draft of History

Chapter 16. Paying for it All: Taxation and the Making of the Modern World
The Growing Power of the State to Extract Revenue
Beyond the Central State: Supporting Communities and Institutions
The Political Economy of the Evolution of the Tax Burden
Conclusion: The Legacy of Tax Cuts-Debt and Inequality
Be An Historian: Cadastres and the Making of the Modern State
Debate: Do High Taxes Prevent Rapid Economic Growth?

Chapter 17. The Age of the Superpowers: Political Change, 1945-2001
The Politics of Rivalry: The Superpowers and Europe
Consequences of the End of a Bipolar World
Nationalism, Socialism, and Capitalism in Asia
Searching for Stability in the Global South: Latin America, Africa, and
Constraints on the Voices of the People
International Institutions and Missed Opportunities
Conclusion: Missed Opportunities
Be An Historian: Music Mattered
Debate: Why Was 1968 Not a Year of Revolution?

Chapter 18. Left in the Lurch: Decolonization, 1914-Present
International Agreements and the End of Empire
A Double-Edged Sword: Communism and Decolonization
The Political Economy of Twentieth-Century Decolonization
New Nationalisms and the Search for Modernity
Colonization: Decolonization and Experiments in Nation-Building
Be An Historian: Authorship Matters! : Biography vs. Autobiography

Chapter 19. Anxieties and Opportunities in the Twenty-First Century
Powerlessness and the Perpetuation of Inequality
The Environment in Crisis
Disease and Globalization's Challenge to Public Health
Protest in the Arab World
Populism, Nationalism, and the Drift Toward Authoritarianism
Conclusion: Inequality in the Twenty-First Century
Debate: Thinking About the Future

Further Reading
Credits
Index