Noted teachers and scholars William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel present a brief, balanced, highly readable overview of world history that explores common challenges and experiences that unite the human past and that identify key regional patterns over time. The text adopts a balanced approach to world history, with some chapters focusing on specific geographical regions and others taking a comparative or thematic approach, in deference to the increasing interconnection that marks developments in the world today. This approach helps students to link events together in a broad comparative and global framework, thereby placing the contemporary world in a more meaningful historical context.
Available in the following split options: THE ESSENTIAL WORLD HISTORY, Eighth Edition Complete, Volume I: To 1800, and Volume II: Since 1500.

Part I: THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE OF EMPIRES (PREHISTORY TO 500 C.E.).
1. Early Humans and the First Civilizations.
2. Ancient India.
3. China in Antiquity.
4. The Civilization of the Greeks.
5. The Roman World Empire.
Part II: NEW PATTERNS OF CIVILIZATION (500-1500 C.E.).
6. The Americas.
7. Ferment in the Middle East: The Rise of Islam.
8. Early Civilizations in Africa.
9. The Expansion of Civilization in South and Southeast Asia.
10. The Flowering of Traditional China.
11. The East Asian Rimlands: Early Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
12. The Making of Europe.
13. The Byzantine Empire and Crisis and Recovery in the West.
Part III: THE EMERGENCE OF NEW WORLD PATTERNS (1500-1800).
14. New Encounters: The Creation of a World Market.
15. Europe Transformed: Reform and State Building.
16. The Muslim Empires.
17. The East Asian World.
18. The West on the Eve of a New World Order.

Noted teachers and scholars William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel present a brief, balanced, highly readable overview of world history that explores common challenges and experiences that unite the human past and that identify key regional patterns over time. The text adopts a balanced approach to world history, with some chapters focusing on specific geographical regions and others taking a comparative or thematic approach, in deference to the increasing interconnection that marks developments in the world today. This approach helps students to link events together in a broad comparative and global framework, thereby placing the contemporary world in a more meaningful historical context. Available in the following split options: THE ESSENTIAL WORLD HISTORY, Eighth Edition Complete, Volume I: To 1800, and Volume II: Since 1500. New Primary Sources--New boxed documents have been added to almost every chapter. New topics include: “Social Classes in Ancient India” (Chapter 2); “Relations Between Greeks and Non-Greeks” (Chapter 4); “The Spread of the Muslim Faith” (Chapter 7); “Queen Elizabeth I: I Have the Heart of a King” (Chapter 15); “A Plea for Women’s Education” (Chapter 17); “Flaubert and an Image of Bourgeois Marriage” (Chapter 20); “A Speech by Vaclav Havel” (Chapter 27); and “Osama bin Laden’s ‘I Accuse’” (Chapter 29). New Opposing Viewpoints--Several new Opposing Viewpoints features appear in the Eighth Edition. New topics include: “Women in the Roman and Han Empires” (Chapter 5); “Two Views of Trade and Merchants” (Chapter 12; “Practical Learning or Confucian Essence” (Chapter 22); and “Confrontation in Southeast Asia” (Chapter 26). New Film & History features--New Film & History essays include: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (Chapter 24); DR. STRANGELOVE (Chapter 26); and THE IRON LADY (Chapter 28). All chapters have been updated to reflect current scholarship, including dramatic recent events in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. “Opposing Viewpoints” features present two or more primary source documents representing differing perspectives on the same or related topics. These features provide students an opportunity for hands-on experience analyzing the types of materials historians use on a regular basis. The accompanying critical-thinking questions can be assigned for individual or collaborative study. Topics include “Women in Athens and Sparta” (Chapter 4); “Two Views of Trade and Merchants” (Chapter 12); “Some Confucian Commandments” (Chapter 17); “Confrontation in Southeast Asia” (Chapter 26); and “Islam and the West: Secularism in France” (Chapter 28). More than 100 primary documents (4-5 per chapter) give students access to the kind of material historians draw on when doing their research. Documents include a wide variety of sources such as letters, memoirs, song lyrics, official documents, diary entries, menus, poetry, plays, and more. Introductions and questions help guide students to think more critically, comparatively, and thematically when reading the primary source material, and bring history alive for students. Examples include “‘Draw Their Veils over Their Bosoms’” (Chapter 7); “British Victory in India” (Chapter 18); “Women in the Factories” (Chapter 23); and “The Path of Liberation” (Chapter 24). Seven central themes make the narrative cohesive while helping students make connections and comparisons across chapters. These themes are Science and Technology; Art and Ideas; Family and Society; Politics and Government; Earth and the Environment; Religion and Philosophy; and Interaction and Exchange. Comparative Essays, Comparative Illustrations, Opposing Viewpoints, and documents are each keyed to one of these themes. Comparative Essays highlight similarities and differences between and among cultures. Examples include “History and the Environment” (Chapter 6); “The Columbian Exchange” (Chapter 14); “Imperialisms Old and New” (Chapter 21); and “A Revolution in the Arts” (Chapter 23). The Comparative Essays are specifically keyed to one of the seven themes, thus helping students further identify connections. “Film & History” features analyze the plot and historical significance of popular films using a historian’s perspective to show students how movies represent, and sometimes misrepresent, the past. Features shine the spotlight on films such as GLADIATOR (Chapter 5), THE LION IN WINTER (Chapter 12), MARIE ANTOINETTE (Chapter 18), and THE IRON LADY (Chapter 28).