A History of the Human Community: Prehistory to the Present/Combined Edition of Parts 1 and 2

An intellectually and stylistically unified overview of world history, this book draws a global portrait of the human past showing how each part of the world fits into the overall balance in each successive age. It shows how, in succeeding ages different societies achieved unusual creativity and power and then impelled or compelled those around them (and in time, across long distances) to alter their accustomed style of life to take account of the new things and ideas that had come to their attention. It focuses on the dominance of the West in the last five centuries, but illuminates the influence and leadership before that in separate eras of world history of China, the Middle East, India, the Ancient Mediterranean, and the Ancient Middle East .