The Oxford Handbook of World History

The Oxford Handbook of World History presents thirty-two essays by leading historians in their respective fields. The chapters address the most important issues explored by contemporary world historians. These broadly fall into four categories: conceptions of the global past, themes in world history, processes of world history, regions in world history. Chapters on conceptions deal with issues of space and time as treated in the field of world history, as well as questions of method, epistemology, historiography, and globalization as viewed from historical perspective. Themes discussed include the natural environment, agriculture, pastoral nomadism, science, technology, state formation, gender, and religion. Chapters dealing with large-scale processes review current thinking on some of the most influential developments of the global past, including mass migrations, cross-cultural trade, biological diffusions, imperial expansion, industrialization, and cultural and religious exchanges. Finally, a set of chapters explores distinctive historical developments within the world's major regions, while also situating individual regions in larger global context. Taken together, the essays in this volume provide the best guide to current thinking in one of the most dynamic fields of historical scholarship.Introduction: The Task of World History ; PART I: CONCEPTS ; 1. Theories of World History since the Enlightenment ; 2. Geographies ; 3. Periodization ; 4. Modernity ; 5. Globalization ; 6. Epistemology ; PART II: THEMES ; 7. World Environmental History ; 8. Agriculture ; 9. Nomadic Pastoralism ; 10. States, State Formation, and War ; 11. Genders ; 12. Religions and World History ; 13. Technology, Engineering, and Science ; 14. Advanced Agriculture ; PART III: PROCESSES ; 15. Migrations ; 16. Trade across Eurasia to about 1750 ; 17. Industrialization ; 18. Biological Exchanges in World History ; 19. Cultural Exchanges ; 20. Premodern Empires ; 21. Modern Imperialism ; PART IV: REGIONS ; 22. East Asia and Central Eurasia ; 23. South Asia and Southeast Asia ; 24. The Middle East in World History ; 25. Africa in World History: The Long, Long View ; 26. Europe and Russia in World History ; 27. The Mediterranean Basin ; 28. The Americas, 1450-2000 ; 29. The Atlantic Ocean Basin ; 30. Ocenia and Australasia ; 31. The Pacific Ocean Basin to 1850