Author Description

Product Description Designed for introductory-level survey courses in World History. The primary goal of World Civilizations is to present a truly global history—from the development of agriculture and herding to the present. Using a unique periodization, this book divides the main periods of human history according to changes in the nature and extent of global contacts. This global world history text emphasizes the major stages in the interactions among different peoples and societies, while at the same time assessing the development of major societies. Encompassing social and cultural as well as political and economic history, the book examines key civilizations in world history. World Civilizations balances this discussion of independent developments in the world's major civilizations with comparative analysis of the results of global contact.About the Author Peter N. Stearns Peter N. Stearns is provost and professor of historyat George Mason University. He received his Ph.D.from Harvard University. Before moving to GeorgeMason University, he taught at Rutgers University,the University of Chicago, and Carnegie Mellon,where he won the Robert Doherty EducationalLeadership Award and the Elliott Dunlap Smith Teaching Award. He hastaught world history for more than 15 years. He currently serves as chairof the Advanced Placement World History Committee and also foundedand is the editor of the Journal of Social History. In addition to textbooksand readers, he has written studies of gender and consumerism in a worldhistory context. Other books address modern social and cultural historyand include studies on gender, old age, work, dieting, and emotion. Hismost recent book in this area is American Fear: Causes and Consequences of High Anxiety. Michael Adas Michael Adas is the Abraham Voorhees Professor ofHistory and a board of governor’s chair at RutgersUniversity in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Over thepast couple of decades his teaching has focused onpatterns and processes