WADSWORTH World History

Noted teachers and scholars William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel present a balanced, highly readable overview of world history that explores common challenges and experiences that unite the human past and identify key global patterns over time. Thorough coverage of political, economic, social, religious, intellectual, cultural, and military history is integrated into a chronological framework to help students gain an appreciation and understanding of the distinctive character and development of individual cultures in society. This edition of WORLD HISTORY continues to take a global approach to world history, with an emphasis on analytical comparisons between and among cultures throughout history. This approach helps students link events together in a broad comparative and global framework, thereby placing the contemporary world in a more meaningful historical context. Review "This is one of the best World History textbooks ever published...." "A comprehensive and thorough world history text complete with comparative history, documents, graphics--a one-stop world history curriculum." "Duiker & Spielvogel is a very engaging, accessible, complete and up-to-date text. Students will take away from this book the idea that history does not consist of facts to be memorized but interpretations to be discussed and debated." "The Duiker/Spielvogel book is a wonderful chronological survey of world history that employs a comparative approach to help students see across time and space to better understand world cultures. The book is well written and it has a set of resources within the text that allows it to stand alone without many ancillaries." "This is a well organized text that offers an integrated global perspective. I recommend it because of its concise summations, readability, useful sidebars, and enticing visuals." About the Author William J. Duiker is liberal arts Professor Emeritus of East Asian studies at The Pennsylvania State University. A former U.S. diplomat with service in Taiwan, South Vietnam, and Washington, D.C., he received his doctorate in Far Eastern history from Georgetown University in 1968, where his dissertation dealt with the Chinese educator and reformer Cai Yuanpei. At Penn State, he has written extensively on the history of Vietnam and modern China, including the highly acclaimed COMMUNIST ROAD TO POWER IN VIETNAM (revised edition, Westview Press, 1996), which was selected for a Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award in 1982--1983 and 1996-1997. Other recent books are CHINA AND VIETNAM: THE ROOTS OF CONFLICT (Berkeley, 1987), U.S. CONTAINMENT POLICY AND THE CONFLICT IN INDOCHINA (Stanford, 1995), SACRED WAR: NATIONALISM AND REVOLUTION IN A DIVIDED VIETNAM (McGraw-Hill, 1995), and HO CHI MINH (Hyperion, 2000), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. While his research specialization is in the field of nationalism and Asian revolutions, his intellectual interests are considerably more diverse. He has traveled widely and has taught courses on the history of communism and non-Western civilizations at Penn State, where he was awarded a Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the spring of 1996. In 2002, the College of Liberal Arts honored him with an Emeritus Distinction Award. Jackson J. Spielvogel is associate professor Emeritus of history at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, where he specialized in Reformation history under Harold J. Grimm. His articles and reviews have appeared in journals such as "Moreana," "Journal of General Education," "Catholic Historical Review," "Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte," and "American Historical Review." He also has contributed chapters or articles to "The Social History of Reformation," THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE: A DICTIONARY HANDBOOK, "Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual of Holocaust Studies," and "Utopian Studies." His work has been supported by fellowships from the Ful