The big picture of world history shines through in the thematic and comparative approach of this genuinely global narrative. Brief by design, the narrative avoids the overwhelming detail of many textbooks and emphasizes major developments and the larger contexts in which these developments took place. Broad themes include global commerce, the emergence of major religious traditions, industrialization, the rise and fall of totalitarian systems, technological innovations, and human impact on the environment. Part-opening essays set the stage for the chapters that follow and encourage students to make connections among the world's cultures.

Achieve’s unique 2-in-1 format of narrative plus chapter source projects with additional reader sources and activities offers opportunities for developing historical thinking skills. This combination of textbook and source book teaches historical thinking and analysis through the inclusion of related written and visual primary and secondary source projects at the end of each chapter. Accompanying the narrative, each chapter concludes with a Working with Evidence project of 5-6 primary sources organized around a particular theme, issue, or question, such as “Perceptions of Outsiders in the Ancient World,” "State Building in the Early Modern Era," “Cultural Encounters in Muslim Spain,” and "Global Feminism." Each is followed by a related Historians’ Voices secondary source feature, which pairs 2 brief excerpts from historians who comment on some aspect of the topics covered in the primary sources. Each source feature is accompanied by incisive questions to guide students’ skillful examination of the sources. Users of Achieve also get access to additional primary and secondary sources for each chapter from the companion reader Thinking through Sources for Ways of the World, along with auto-graded quizzes for all of the book and reader sources and 6 new Building a Historical Argument exercises, which--using a combination of autograded and free response questions--guides students through the process of building a thesis, supporting it with evidence from sources in the book, and writing a brief conclusion.

Curated tools promote historical thinking skills and help students focus on the big picture.

• Part-opening Big Picture essays preview the major developments that are covered in subsequent chapters, while new Landmarks timelines included in Achieve provide a visual outline of how major events unfolded in relation to each other during that period and promote chronological reasoning.
• Seeking the Main Point questions and in Achieve Landmarks timelines near the beginning of each chapter help students identify main themes and discern broad patterns.
• In Achieve, skills-based questions accompanying the narrative ask students to actively describe and compare historical developments, contrast civilizations, connect regions and ideas, assess patterns of continuity and change, and more. The most essential of these questions, labeled “Core Ideas,” are presented again in the concluding chapter review in the “Revisiting Core Ideas” section.
• Chapter-ending A Wider View questions provide students with opportunities for integration, comparison, analysis, and sometimes speculation about the chapter material.

A thoughtful and reflective approach to the global past challenges the idea that history is static and the textbook is a definitive account. Robert W. Strayer, a pioneer in the field of world history, and Eric W. Nelson, an innovative teacher, muse on the multiple meanings of history and the historian's craft. Students experience first-hand the process of reading historical evidence and making historical arguments.

• At the end of each chapter, a short Conclusions and Reflections section--revised for this edition--revisits the chapter in light of the chapter-opening Seeking the Main Point question and raises provocative, sometimes speculative, questions about the craft of the historian and the unfolding of the human story.
• Controversies essays highlight debates about key historical issues: the beginnings of history, the origins of major religious traditions, the nature of empires, the idea of the Atlantic World, the Industrial Revolution, and the concept of globalization.
• In Achieve, the primary source projects in Working with Evidence encourage students to draw their own conclusions from the historical record, and the secondary source excerpts in Historians’ Voices sections help students understand how scholars contribute unique and sometimes conflicting analysis of historical events.

New “Then and Now” features in Achieve promote the skill of connecting with the past. Offered once in each part of the book, these essays examine a particular theme in both historical and contemporary settings. Themes include patriarchy, slavery, science, China’s role on the global stage, and more. The skill of connecting with the past is reinforced at the beginning of each chapter through updated vignettes called Connecting Past and Present that illustrate the continuing relevance of the chapter’s material in today’s world.

"Zooming In" features in Achieve link specific people, places, and events to big themes in world history. Supplied once in every chapter, these features call attention to particular people, places, and events, situating them in a larger global context. Topics include Göbekli Tepe and monumental construction before agriculture (specially updated for this edition), Trung Trac and resistance to the Chinese Empire, gunpowder, the end of the Byzantine Empire, feminism and nationalism in Java, the Cuban Revolution, and many more.

Achieve, Macmillan Learning’s innovative new learning platform, pairs creative new teaching and assessment options with powerful insights into student work, so instructors can do more. Achieve comes loaded with the full-color comprehensive edition e-book, the companion source reader, and abundant formative and summative assessments which are all tagged to learning objectives that are aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy. Drawing on principles of instructional design and popular assignments, Achieve provides customizable pre-built course options and resource filters that help instructors set up their courses with ease, and these courses can be integrated with all major LMS systems. Assignments and activities in Achieve include:

• LearningCurve adaptive quizzing, which is designed to get students to read the text before class;
• reflection activities that invite students to reflect on what they have read in each chapter;
• instructor activity guides that instructors can use in class for either remote or in-person collaborative learning;
• source and feature quizzes;
• research and writing tutorials;
• map quizzes; and
• Building a Historical Argument activities, which enable students to hone their skills in constructing a thesis, identifying evidence to sustain historical arguments, and writing conclusions.

Robust reports in Achieve give instructors multi-level insights into student progress toward meeting learning objectives as well as how they have progressed on assignments so instructors can give students support where they need it most. Available with training and support, Achieve can help you take your teaching to a new level.

A range of options offers convenience and value. While Achieve offers the most powerful combination of resources and assessments at a low-cost price, it can also be packaged with one of the print versions for a small upcharge. In addition to the standard bound textbook, this edition is also available in convenient, discount-priced loose-leaf and e-book formats. This edition is also available in a comprehensive full-color, full-feature version with sources and abundant visuals. E-books for both book formats provide other low-cost options.