The Essential World History, Enhanced Edition, Volume 2

by William J. Duiker, Jackson J. Spielvogel

THE ESSENTIAL WORLD HISTORY, Enhanced Third Edition, shows you how to use the maps, images, and documents in the book to give you an edge in your study of history. A brief introduction to the text -- "Studying from Primary Source Materials" -- reveals some of the tricks to uncovering the past that your instructor wants you to know. "Discovery" sections, at the end of every chapter, assist you in practicing these skills, which will help you connect the text's seven themes of world history and excel in your course. This bestselling text presents a balanced, highly readable overview of world history that explores common challenges and experiences uniting the human past and informing key global patterns over time. Thorough coverage of political, economic, social, religious, intellectual, cultural, and military history has been integrated into a chronologically ordered synthesis to help you gain an appreciation and understanding of the distinctive character and development of individual cultures. The text takes a global approach to world history, helping you link events together in a broad comparative framework and place the contemporary world in a more meaningful historical context.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

496 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2004

About the author

William J. Duiker is a former United States Foreign Service officer and Professor of History at Penn State University. His area of expertise is East Asia; while in the Foreign Service he spent several years in Vietnam, where an injury left him with partial hearing in one ear. Duiker is the author of Ho Chi Minh: A Life, published in 2000, which was the first comprehensive biography of Ho Chi Minh using sources from Vietnam. He recently retired from teaching.

Reviews

[Salimah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely fell in love with this book!! I read it like it was fiction. The writers/editors did skip and skim over a lot of important details, I feel, with some topics. For example, they do not call the Berlin Conference by name. And they mention the 'scramble for Africa' in a passive way. Although they do explain the outcome of this event, it is the moniker here that is important. (Please look up the Berlin Conference if you are unfamiliar. It will maybe blow your mind, move you, or, if anything, compel you to learn more about some part of history that you are definitely apart of).

[Terri Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, like its companion volume (volume 1 which covers the years up to 1500), is an excellent, well written, colorful college text on World History. For an introductory text, it thoroughly covers the time period and is written in a conversational, easy to read way. For history lovers, it is a pleasure to read and students who take courses with this as the text are lucky.

[RC McGranahan · Rating 2 out of 5]

pretty good info wise, but oddly religiously biased at times. "And heaven was definitely happy..." like...this is a history textbook sir, what?