World History in Documents: A Comparative Reader, 2nd Edition

by Peter N. Stearns

A textbook of primary sources of key events in history that have altered the past

While world history materials date back to prehistoric times, the field itself is relatively young. Indeed, when the first edition of Peter Stearns’s best-selling World History in Documents was published in 1998, world history was poised for explosive growth, with the College Board approving the AP world history curriculum in 2000, and the exam shortly thereafter. At the university level, survey world history courses are increasingly required for history majors, and graduate programs in world history are multiplying in the U.S. and overseas.

World events have changed as rapidly as the field of world history itself, making the long-awaited second edition of World History in Documents especially timely. In addition to including a new preface, focusing on current trends in the field, Stearns has updated forty percent of the textbook, paying particular attention to global processes throughout history. The book also covers key events that have altered world history since the publication of the first edition, including terrorism, global consumerism, and environmental issues.

Genres: History, School, Nonfiction, Politics, Textbooks, World History, Childrens

640 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Peter Nathaniel Stearns is a professor at George Mason University, where he was provost from January 1, 2000 to July 2014.
Stearns was chair of the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University and also served as the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (now named Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences) at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, he founded and edited the Journal of Social History. While at Carnegie Mellon, he developed a pioneering approach to teaching World History, and has contributed to the field as well through editing, and contributing to, the Routledge series, Themes in World History. He is also known for various work on the nature and impact of the industrial revolution and for exploration of new topics, particularly in the history of emotions.
He is active in historical groups such as the American Historical Association, the Society for French Historical Studies, the Social Science History Association and the International Society for Research on Emotion.

Reviews

[Aria Maher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read sections of this for my World History class, so I didn't really complete the whole thing, but I'm probably not going to be returning to it any time soon, so I'm just marking it as "read." The documents that I read were interesting and it was very neat to have insight into different sides of issues; the Christian versus Muslim accounts of the Crusades were especially interesting, although maybe I just think that because I had to read them a bunch so I could write an essay about them
😂

[Jude Nealy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect for what it is, some excerpts from important key documents to give a nice little skim of world history.