The World interweaves two stories—of our interactions with nature and with each other. The environment-centered story is about humans distancing themselves from the rest of nature and searching for a relationship that strikes a balance between constructive and destructive exploitation. The culture-centered story is of how human cultures have become mutually influential and yet mutually differentiating. Both stories have been going on for thousands of years. We do not know whether they will end in triumph or disaster.   There is no prospect of covering all of world history in one book. Rather, the fabric of this book is woven from selected strands. Readers will see these at every turn, twisted together into yarn, stretched into stories. Human-focused historical ecology—the environmental theme—will drive readers back, again and again, to the same concepts: sustenance, shelter, disease, energy, technology, art. (The last is a vital category for historians, not only because it is part of our interface with the rest of the world, but also because it forms a record of how we see reality and of how the way we see it changes.) In the global story of human interactions—the cultural theme—we return constantly to the ways people make contact with each another: migration, trade, war, imperialism, pilgrimage, gift exchange, diplomacy, travel—and to their social frameworks: the economic and political arenas, the human groups and groupings, the states and civilizations, the sexes and generations, the classes and clusters of identity.

Table of Contents:
Volume 1: Chapters 1-15 Volume 2: Chapters 13-30 Volume A: Chapters 1-10 Volume B: Chapters 11-20 Volume C: Chapters 20-30     Part 1: Foragers and Farmers, to 5,000 BCE   Chapter 1 Out of the ice: Peopling the Earth   So you think you’re Human? Human Evolution Out of Africa Peopling the Old World Migration, Population, and Social Change The Last Great Ice Age Ice-Age Hunters Ice-Age Art Ice-Age Culture and Society Peopling the New World Survival of the Foragers   In Perspective: After the Ice   Chapter 2 Out of the Mud: Farming and Herding After the Ice Age   The Problem of Agriculture A Case in Point: Aboriginal Australians Preagriculural Settlements The Disadvantages of Farming Husbandry in Different Environments Herders’ Environments Tillers’ Environments The Spread of Agriculture Europe Asia The Americas Africa The Pacific Islands So Why did Farming Start? Population Pressure The Outcome of Abundance The Power of Politics Cult Agriculture Climatic Instability Agriculture by Accident Production As an Outgrowth of Procurement In Perspective: Seeking Stability   Part 2: Farmers and Builders, 5000 to 500 BCE   Chapter 3 The Great River Valleys: Accelerating Change and Developing States   Growing Communities, Divergent Cultures Intensified Settlement and Its Effects The Ecology of Civilization   The Great Floodplains The Ecology of Egypt Shifting Rivers of the Indus Valley Fierce Nature in Early Mesopotamia The Good Earth of Early China Configurations of Society Patterns of Settlement and Labor Politics Statecraft in Mesopotamia The First Documented Chinese State Ruling Harappan World The Politics of Expansion Literate Culture In Perspective: What Made the Great River Valleys Different?   Chapter 4 A Succession of Civilizations: Ambition and Instability   The Case of the Hittite Kingdom The Importance of Trade Hittite Society and Politics Fragility and Fall: The End of the Hatti Instability and Collapse in the Aegean Cretan Civilization Mycenean Civilization A General Crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean World? The Egyptian Experience The Roots of Instability The Extinction of Harappan Civilization The Evidence of the Rig Veda The Environment of Stress Conflict on the Yellow River The Rise of the Zhou The Zhou Political System State-Building in the Americas Andean Examples Developments in Mesoamerica Assessing  the Damage The Survival of Egypt In Perspective: The Fatal Flaws   Chapter 5 Rebuilding the World: Recoveries, New Initiatives, and Their Limits   Trade and Recovery in the Middle East The Phoenician Experience The Assyrian Empire The Babylonian Revival Greeceand Beyond The Greek Environment Greek Colonialism Early Greek Society The Spread of State-Building and City-Building Empire and Recovery in China and South Asia The Zhou Decline South Asia: Relocated Centers of Culture The Ganges Valley Building Anew in Sri Lanka The Frustrations of Isolation Developments in North Ameica New Initiatives in Africa In Perspective: The Framework of Recovery   Part 3: The Axial Age, from 500 BCE to 100 CE   Chapter 6 The Great Schools   The Thinkers of the Axial Age   The Thoughts of the Axial Age Religious Thinking New Political Thinking Challenging Illusion Mathematics Reason Science Medicine Skepticism Axial Age-Axial Area: The Structures of the Axial Age   In Perspective: The Reach of the Sages     Chapter 7 The Great Empires   Routes that Drew the Old World Together The Sea Routes of the Indian Ocean Land Routes: The Silk Roads The First Eurasian Empire: Persia The Persian Heartland Persian Government The Persian-Greek Wars The Empire of Alexander the Great The Rise of Rome The Roman Frontiers Imperial Culture and Commerce The Celts The Beginnings of Imperialism in India Government Asoka and His Mental World Chinese Unity and Imperialism Unity Endangered and Saved The Menace from the Steppes Beyond  the Empires Japan and Korea The Western Eurasian Steppe Mesoamerica In Perspective: The Aftermath of Axial Age   Part 4: Fitful Transitions, from the Third Century to the Tenth Century   Chapter 8 Postimperial Worlds: Problems of Empires in Eurasia and Africa, ca. 200 to 700 CE   The Western Roman Empire and Its Invaders Changes Within the Roman Empire The “Barbarian” West Steppeelanders and Their Victims China India New Frontiers in Asia Korea Funan The Rise of Ethiopia   The Crises of the Sixth and Seventh Centuries   Justinian and the Eastern Roman Empire   The New Barbarians   The Arabs Islam The Arabs Against Persia and Rome The Muslim World   Recovery and Its Limits in China Rise of the Tang Empress Wu Tang Decline In the Shadow of the Tang: Tibet and Japan Tibet Japan In Perspective: The Triumph of Barbarism?   Chapter 9 The Rise of World Religions: Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism   Commerce and Conflict: Carriers of Creeds In The Islamic World In Christendom In the Buddhist World Trade Manichaeanism and the Uighurs Christianity on the Silk Roads Islam on Trade Routes Monarchs and Missionaries Constantine Ezana Trdat Diplomatic Conversions Buddhist Politics Korea Japan Tibet India The Margins of Christendom Vladimir and the Rus Islam and the Turks Trickle Down: Christianization and Islamization   Religious Lives: The World of Monks and Nuns Christian Monasticism Buddhist Monks Sufism Religious Women In Perspective: The Triumph of the Potential World Religions   Chapter 10 Remaking the World: Innovation and Renewal on Environmental Frontiers in the Late First Millenium   Isolation and Initiative: Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas African Geography American Geography The Maize Frontiers The Islamic World and the Environment   Frontier Growth in Japan   Chinaand Southeast Asia   The Pacific   The Expansion of Christendom   In Perspective: The Limits of Divergence     Part 5: Contact and Conflicts, 1000 CE to 1200 CE   Chapter 11 Contending with Isolation: ca. 1000-1200   Around the Indian Ocean: Ethiopia, the Khmer, and India East Africa: The Ethiopian Empire Southeast Asia: The Khmer Kingdom India: Economy and Culture India: The Chola Kingdom Eurasia’s Extremities: Japan and Western Europe Japan Western Europe: Economics and Politics Western Europe: Religion and Culture In Perspective: The Patchwork of Effects   Chapter 12 The Nomadic Frontiers: The Islamic World, Byzantium, and China, ca. 1000-1200   The Islamic World and Its Neighbors The Coming of the Steppelanders The Crusades The Invaders from the Sahara The Progress of Sufism The Byzantine Empire and Its Neighbors Byzantium and the Barbarians Basil II The Era of Difficulties Byzantium and the Crusaders Byzantine Art and Learning Chinaand the Northern Barbarians The End of the Tang Dynasty The Rise of the Song and the Barbarian Conquests Economy and Society Under the Song Song Art and Learning In Perspective: Cains and Abels   PART 6: the crucible: the eurasian crises of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries     Chapter 13 The World the Mongols Made   The Mongols: Reshaping Eurasia Genghis Khan The Mongol Steppe The Mongol World Beyond the Steppes: The Silk Roads, China, Persia, and Russia China Persia Russia The Limits of Conquest: Mamluk Egypt and Muslim India Mamluk Egypt Muslim India: The Delhi Sultanate Europe   In Perspective: The Uniqueness of the Mongols     Chapter 14 The Revenge of Nature:  Plague, Cold, and the Limits of Disaster in the Fourteenth Century   Climate Change   The Coming of the Age of Plague The Course and Impact of Plague Medicine and Morals The Jews Distribution of Wealth Peasant Millenarianism The Limits of Disaster: Beyond the Plague Zone India Southeast Asia Japan Mali The Pacific: Societies of Isolation Easter Island New Zealand Ozette Chan Chan In Perspective: The Aftershock   Chapter 15 Expanding Worlds: Recovery in the Late Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries   Fragile Empires in Africa East Africa West Africa Ecological Imperialism in the Americas The Inca Empire The Aztec Empire New Eurasian Empires The Russia Empire Timurids and the Ottoman Empire The Limitations of Chinese Imperialism   The Beginnings of Oceanic Imperialism   The European Outlook: Problems and Promise   In Perspective: Beyond Empires