1: Emergence -- World history and human origins -- Changing environments, changing societies -- Settled societies: the emergence of cities -- 2: Order -- Ideas and power: goddesses, God-kings, and sages -- Religion and state: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam -- Trade, transport, temples, and tribute: the economics of power -- Ties that bind: lineage, clientage, and caste -- Ordering the world: family and household -- Culture and memory -- Connections -- 3: Transformation -- Commerce and change in Asia, Europe, and Africa, 750-1500 -- Commerce and change: the creation of a global economy and the expansion of Europe -- Traditions and their transformations -- Boundaries, encounters, and frontiers -- Crucibles of change: landscapes, culture, and social life after 1500 -- 4: Balance -- Dual revolutions: capitalist industrialism and the nation state -- The tentacles of empire: the new imperialism and nationalisms in Asia, Africa, and the Americas -- Culture, power, and perspective: war and peace in the twentieth century -- Resistance, revolution, and new global order/disorder -- The crossroads of history: culture, identity, and global community.