PEARSON EDUCATION Connections: A World History, Combined Volume, VangoBooks

Connections: A World History focuses on the connections within and between societies, combining a uniquely comprehensive and consistent map program with a strong pedagogical support and a narrative that students will actually read.   Written by historians with years of experience teaching world history, Connections presents both a global and regional perspective, so students can appreciate both the diversity and connectedness of human societies.  Concise chapters and a clear engaging narrative make the text accessible to a wide range of students.  In addition, because students struggle with geography, the book includes significantly more maps than other texts―in most cases twice as many―and great care was taken to make them consistent and exceptionally clear.  In each caption, the authors have provided guidance for reading the map and for connecting it to the surrounding text.  To further help students succeed, marginal notes highlight major connections for easy review, and pronunciation guides appear after difficult names.  Lastly, compelling vignettes introduce the themes of each chapter, concise excerpts from relevant primary sources allow students to hear the voices of the past, and an extensive chapter review section is designed to help students test themselves and succeed in this difficult course.  Review "History texts are not written for historians; they are written for students.  Sometimes authors lose sight of this, but these authors have not."                                                                                                                                                --Connie Brand, Meridian Community College   “This text very carefully demonstrates the complex interactions between civilizations while emphasizing the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges of individual civilizations.  I’ve never encountered a text that blends these two themes more effectively.” ~ Robert McCormick, University of South Carolina, Spartanburg   “One great strength of showing connections is that it helps make history come alive for students.” ~ David John Marley, Vanguard University   “I thought the connections were very well done.  It was easy to read and contain all of the relevant information without being dull.  The maps were very helpful as were the important facts off to the side.” ~ Tracey Provost, Middle Georgia College   “The text covers well the interaction of civilizations and gives the students the sense that events and civilizations do not exist in a vacuum.  This is precisely the approach that I use in my classes.” ~ Gregort Havrilcsak, University of Michigan, Flint   “I found the broader connections presented here to be accurate, easily accessible, and meaningful for students.  This is one of the strong points of the text.” ~ Anthony Gulig, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater"     The progression of maps within each chapter is incredibly well thought out and integrated.  The maps are beautiful and carefully done, and the number of maps included in each chapter is far more than in a typical world history textbook."                                                                                                                                    ---Linda Bregstein Scherr, Mercer County Community College   “The maps are vivid.  The show connections, trace routes in a direct contextual line with the text.  They serve as an ancillary for the text, not as a distraction.” ~ John H. Frederick, South Louisiana Community College   “I think this book would be effective with a range of my students, because of its clear writing and nice narrative flow.”             ~ Jonathan Ablard, Ithaca College   “The best part of the book is how well it flows.  Sometimes I feel like I am reading a story book rather than a textbook, but I am still learning history…I think the end-of-chapter material puts everything into perspective.  It basically sums some lose ends up that completes your knowledge of histo