Table of Contents
List of Maps viii
Preface to the Sixth Edition xi
Book 1 Before History
Introduction 1
1 The Foundations 3
2 Homo Sapiens 18
3 The Possibility of Civilization 30
Book 2 Civilizations
Introduction 41
1 Early Civilized Life 43
2 Ancient Mesopotamia 51
3 Ancient Egypt 68
4 Intruders and Invaders 88
5 The Beginnings of Civilization in South Asia 112
6 Ancient China 115
7 The Other Worlds of the Ancient Past 144
8 Transformations 154
Book 3 The Classical Age
Introduction 161
1 Remaking the Old World 163
2 The Greeks 167
3 The Hellenistic World 201
4 Rome 215
5 Christianity and the Western Transition 246
6 Classical India 300
7 Classical China 311
Book 4 The Age of Diverging Traditions
Introduction 315
1 The Central Eurasian Crossroads 317
2 Islam and the Arab Empires 333
3 Byzantium and Its Sphere 357
4 The New Middle East and the Making of Europe 384
5 India 430
6 Imperial China 437
7 Japan 458
8 Worlds Apart 469
9 Europe: The Possibility of Change 481
10 New Limits New Horizons 513
Book 5 The Making of the European Age
Introduction 535
1 Qing China and Mughal India 537
2 A New Kind of Society: Early Modern Europe 551
3 Authority and Its Challengers in Europe 573
4 The New World of Great Powers 601
5 Europe's Assault on the World 633
6 World History's New Shape 661
7 Ideas Old and New 678
Book 6 The Great Acceleration
Introduction 701
1 Long-term Change 703
2 Political Change in an Age of Revolution 723
3 Political Change: A New Europe 748
4 Political Change: The Anglo-Saxon World 770
5 The European World Hegemony 791
6 Imperialism and Imperial Rule 815
7 Asian Metamorphoses 833
Book 7 The End of the European Age
Introduction 861
1 Strains in the System 863
2 The Era of the First World War 882
3 The Making of a New Asia 914
4 The Ottoman Heritage and the Western Islamic Lands 931
5 The Second World War 944
6 Decolonization and Cold War 967
Book 8 Our Own Time
Introduction 991
1 Revolutions in Science and Perceptions 995
2 The Cold War World 1035
3 Crises and Detétente 1088
4 The Closing of an Era 1122
5 Openings and Closures 1144
6 Whole World History 1176
Index 1189
