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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Earliest Human Societies, to 2500 B.C.E.

1-1 An Indian View of Creation

From the Rig Veda "The Creation Hymn" (ca. 600 B.C.E.)

1-2 The Yuchi People Explain Their Origins

YUCHI TRIBE OF NORTH AMERICA, In the Beginning (ca. 1929)

1-3 A Greek Description of the Elemental Forces

HESIOD, From Theogony (ca. 700 B.C.E.)

1-4 Clues about Early Human History in a Neolithic Grave

Double Burial from Mantua, Italy (ca. 6000-5000 B.C.E.)

1-5 Artistic Expression in the Paleolithic Era

Cave Painting of a Male and Female Deer (ca. 13,000 B.C.E.)

2-1 A Mesopotamian Quest for Immortality

From The Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2700-2500 B.C.E.)

2-2 Law and Order in Ancient Babylonia

HAMMURABI, Hammurabi’s Code: Laws on Society and Family Life (ca. 1800 B.C.E.)

2-3 Moses Leads the Hebrews from Egypt

Book of Exodus (ca. 950-450 B.C.E.)

2-4 An Assyrian Emperor’s Resume

ASHUR-NASIR-PAL II, Inscription (ca. 875 B.C.E.)

2-5 A Persian Emperor Proclaims his Righteousness

CYRUS OF PERSIA, Righteous Rule (ca. 530 B.C.E.)

3-1 Harrapan Urban Planning

A Residential Street in Mohenjo-daro (ca. 2500-2000 B.C.E.)

3-2 Suffering and Enlightenment

THE BUDDAH, The Buddha Obtains Enlightenment (ca. 530-29 B.C.E.)

3-3 The Search for Enlightenment in the Upanishads

From the Upanishads: On the Nature of the Soul (ca. 450 B.C.E.)

3-4 Social Mores in Ancient India

From The Laws of Manu (ca. 100 B.C.E.-200 C.E.)

3-5 Ashoka Makes His Will Known

ASHOKA, From Thirteenth Rock Edict (256 B.C.E.)

4-1 Art and Culture in Shang China

Detail of Ritual Vase known as the Tigress (ca. 1200 B.C.E.)

4-2 Confucius Offers Advice on Kingship

From Book of Documents (ca. 900-100 B.C.E.)

4-3 Confucian Maxims and Sayings

CONFUCIUS, From Analects (ca. 500 B.C.E. – 50 C.E.)

4-4 Laozi Offers Advice on Following the Way

LAOZI, From Dao De Jing: Administering the Empire (ca. 500-400 B.C.E.)

4-5 Han Fei Lays Out the Legalist View of Good Government

HAN FEI, The Five Vermin (ca. 250-25 B.C.E.)

5-1 Honor, Pride, and Anger in Ancient Greece

HOMER, From the Iliad: Achilles’s Anger and Its Consequences (ca. 750 B.C.E.)

5-2 Socrates Defends Himself Against Criminal Charges

PLATO, From Apologia (ca. 399 B.C.E.)

5-3 A Hellenistic King Embraces Hellenic Virtues

PLUTARCH, From Life of Cleomenes III (First Century C.E.)

5-4 A Hellenic Depiction of Physical Perfection

Zeus from Artemisium (ca. 460 B.C.E.)

5-5 A Hellenistic Depiction of Human Suffering

The Dying Gaul (ca. 230-220 B.C.E.)

6-1 The Romans Set Their Basic Laws in Stone

The Twelve Tables (ca. 450 B.C.E.)

6-2 Plutarch Describes a Man Who Would Be King

PLUTARCH, On Julius Caesar, A Man of Unlimited Ambition (ca. 44 C.E.)

6-3 A Roman Villa Sheds Light on Roman Religion

Initiation into the Cult of Dionysus (ca. 60-50 B.C.E.)

6-4 An Official Asks for Advice on Dealing with Christians

PLINY THE YOUNGER, Letters to and from the Emperor Trajan on Christians (111-113 C.E.)

6-5 A Christian Defends His Religion Against Roman Persecution

TERTULLIAN, From Apologia (ca. 197 C.E.)

7-1 A Chinese Historian Describes a Nomadic People

SIMA QIAN, From The Records of the Historian: On the Xiongnu (ca. 109-86 B.C.E.)

7-2 What Makes a Good Woman?

BAN ZHAO, From Lessons for Women (ca. 80 C.E.)

7-3 Cultural Fusion in Medieval Japan

Hachiman, Shinto God of War, in the Guise of a Buddhist Monk (ca. 1100-1300 C.E.)

7-4 Reconciling Buddhism with Traditional Chinese Values

HAN YU, From Lives of the Eminent Monks: Zhu Seng Du (ca. 550 C.E.)

7-5 Emperoer Wuzong Cracks Down on Buddhism

EMPEROR WUZONG, Edict on the Suppression of Buddhism (845 C.E.)

8-1 Rules for a Religious Community

SAINT BENEDICT OF NURSIA, From The Rule of Saint Benedict: Work and Pray (529)

8-2 A Germanic People Create a Code of Law

The Law of the Salian Franks (ca. 500-600)

8-3 The Greed and Immorality of a Byzantine Emperor

PROCOPIUS, From the Secret History (ca. 550-562)

8-4 Constantinople's Crowning Glory

Hagia Sophia (537)

8-5 Einhard Describes Charlemagne, the Man

EINHARD, From The Life of Charlemagne (829-836)

9-1 Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Qur'an

MUHAMMAD, Qur'an (ca. 650)

9-2 Muhammad Signs a Treaty with the Jews of Medina

MUHAMMAD, The Constitution of Medina (ca. 625)

9-3 A Spanish Jew Visits Baghdad

BENJAMIN BEN JONAH OF TUDELA, From Book of Travels (ca. 1159-1172)

9-4 Geometry and Islamic Design

Great Mosque, Cordoba, Spain, and Gate of Al Hakam II, Detail (987)

9-5 A Muslim Scholar Explores the History of Islam

IBN KHALDUN, From Prolegomenon to History: On Shi'ite Succession (1377)

10-1 A Muslim Traveler Describes Ghana and Mali

ABU UBAYDALLAH AL-BAKRI, From The Book of Routes and Realms (ca. 1067-1068)

10-2 Fact and Fiction in an Account of Sub-Saharan Africa

ABU HAMID MUHAMMAD AL-ANDALUSI AL-GHARNATI, From Gift of the Spirit (ca. 1120-1170)

10-3 Leo Africanus Describes Timbuktu to a European Audience

LEO AFRICANUS (AL-HASAN IBN MUHAMMAD AL-WAZZAN AL-FASI), From The History and Description of Africa (1526)

10-4 A History of West Africa by West Africans

From Epic of Sundiata (ca. 1250)

11-1 An Artist Uses Archaeological Evidence to Imagine an Ancient City

Moundville (ca. 1000-1450 C.E.)

11-2 A Spanish Conquistador Describes Inca Government

PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEON, From Chronicles: On the Inca (ca. 1535)

11-3 Diego Durán Describes Mexica Customs

DIEGO DURAN, From Book of the Gods and Rites (ca. 1576-1579)

11-4 The Rules and Objectives of a Maya Ball Game

ANTONIO DE HERRERA Y TORDESILLAS, On the Maya Ball Game Tlachtli (ca. 1598)

11-5 The Gods Challenge Two Maya Heroes to a Game of Tlachtli

FATHER FRANCISCO XIMENEZ, From 　Popol Vuh (ca. 1701-1703)

12-1 Observations on Mongol Rule in China

Epitaph for the Honorable Menggu (ca. 1272)

12-2 The Role of a Mongol Leader in Battle

RASHID-AL-DIN, Chinggis Khan Fighting the Tartars (ca. 1300)

12-3 A European Merchant Travels the Silk Road

MARCO POLO, From Travels: Description of the World (ca. 1298)

12-4 Hindu Description of the Ideal Wife

VATSYAYANA, From the Kamasutra: About a Wife (ca. 150-1200)

12-5 A Muslim Scholar Offers Guidance to His Fellow Believers

MAULANA BURHAN UD-DIN MARGHINANI, From Guidance: Alms, Marriage, and Testimony (ca. 1197)

13-1 Marriage and Female Virtue

MURASAKI SHIKIBU, From The Tale of Genji (ca. 1021)

13-2 The Experience of War in Feudal Japan

From The Tale of the Heike (ca. 1250)

13-3 A Chinese Sculptor Envisions Enlightenment

Figure of a Lohan, Yuan Dynasty (1260-1368)

13-4 The Islamic World as Seen from a Chinese Perspective

CHAU JU-KUA, On the Arab People of Quanzhou (ca. 1250)

13-5 Widowhood and Female Virtue in Medieval China

Widows Loyal Unto Death (ca. 1754)

14-1 The Pope Calls on Christians to Wage a Holy War

FULCHER OF CHARTRES, From A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem: The Call for Crusade (ca. 1100-1127)

14-2 A Muslim View of the Franks

ZAKARIYA AL-QAZWINI, From Monuments of the Lands: An Islamic View of the West (1275-1276)

14-3 The Virgin Mary in Popular Religion

JACQUES DE VITRY, The Virgin Mary Saves a Monk and His Lover (ca. 1200)

14-4 Royal Power and the Rule of Law

KING JOHN OF ENGLAND, From Magna Carta: The Great Charter of Liberties (1215)

14-5 A Scholastic Places Logic in the Service of Theology

THOMAS AQUINAS, From Summa Theologica: Can It Be Demonstrated That God Exists? (1268)

15-1 Petrarch Expresses His Admiration for Classical Works

PETRARCH, Letters (ca. 1354, 1360)

15-2 Pico Della Mirandola Argues for the Importance of Philosophical Debate

PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, From On the Dignity of Man (1486)

15-3 A Female Renaissance Painter Examines Gender and Power

ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI, Susanna and the Elders (1610)

15-4 Luther Calls on the German Nobility to Break with the Catholic Church

MARTIN LUTHER, From Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520)

15-5 John Calvin Explains His Views on Faith and the Clergy

JOHN CALVIN, From Instruction in Faith (1537)

16-1 The World as Europeans Knew it in 1502

World Map (1502)

16-2 Columbus Defends His Accomplishments

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, Letter from the Third Voyage (1493)

16-3 Spanish Ambitions in the New World

THEODORE DE BRY, Columbus at Hispaniola (ca. 1590)

16-4 Cross-Cultural Communications and Conquest

BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO, From The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (1568)

16-5 Scenes from the Spanish Conquest of Mexica

From The Florentine Codex (ca. 1577-1580)

Authors

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Madison) taught first at Augustana College in Illinois, and from 1985 to 2018 at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she is now Distinguished Professor of History emerita. She is the Senior Editor of the Sixteenth Century Journal, one of the editors of the Journal of Global History, and the author or editor of more than thirty books, including A Concise History of the World. From 2017 to 2019 she served as the president of the World History Association.

Patricia Buckley Ebrey

Patricia B. Ebrey (Ph.D., Columbia University), Professor of History at the University of Washington in Seattle, specializes in China. She has published numerous journal articles and The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, as well as numerous monographs.  In 2010 she won the Shimada Prize for outstanding work of East Asian Art History for Accumulating Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong.

Roger B. Beck

Roger B. Beck (Ph.D., Indiana University) is Distinguished Professor of African and twentieth-century world history at Eastern Illinois University. His publications include The History of South Africa, a translation of P. J. van der Merwe's The Migrant Farmer in the History of the Cape Colony, 1657-1842, and more than a hundred articles, book chapters, and reviews. He is a former treasurer and Executive Council member of the World History Association.

Jerry Davila

Jerry Dávila (Ph.D., Brown University) is Jorge Paulo Lemann professor of Brazilian History at the University of Illinois. He is the author of Dictatorship in South America; Hotel Trópico: Brazil and the Challenge of African Decolonization, winner of the Latin Studies Association Brazil Section Book prize; and of Diploma of Whiteness: Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917-1945. He has served as president of the Conference on Latin American History.

Clare Haru Crowston

Clare Haru Crowston (Ph.D., Cornell University) teaches at the University of Illinois, where she is currently professor of history and department chair. She is the author of Credit, Fashion, Sex: Economies of Regard in Old Regime France and Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675–1791, which won the Berkshire and Hagley Prizes. She edited two special issues of the Journal of Women’s History, has published numerous journal articles and reviews, and is a past president of the Society for French Historical Studies.

John P. McKay

John P. McKay (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is professor emeritus at the University of Illinois. He has written or edited numerous works, including the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize-winning book Pioneers for Profit: Foreign Entrepreneurship and Russian Industrialization, 1885-1913.

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