Global History (eBook)

A Short Overview

Noel Cowen (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2013 | 1. Auflage
224 Seiten
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-0-7456-6606-8 (ISBN)

Infos

This short book offers a clear and engaging introduction to the
history of humankind, from the earliest movements of people to the
contemporary epoch of globalization. Cowen traces this complex
history in a manner which offers both a compelling narrative and an
analytical and comparative treatment. Drawing on a new perspective
on global history, he traces the intersection of change in
economics, politics and human beliefs, examining the formation,
enlargement and limits of human societies. Global History
shows how much of human history encompasses three intersecting
forces - trading networks, expanding political empires and
crusading creeds.

Abandoning the limits of a Eurocentric view of the world, the
book offers a number of fresh insights. Its periodization embraces
movement across continents and across the millennia. The indigenous
American civilizations are included, for instance. The book also
ranges over the early civilizations of China and Europe as well as
the Russian and Islamic worlds. Modern American and Japanese
civilizations are, in addition, a focus for attention. The author
examines national and regional histories in relation to wider
themes, sequences and global tendencies. In conclusion, he seeks to
address the question of the extent to which a global society is
beginning to crystallize.

Autor

Noel Cowen writes from long experience and observation, early on as a newspaper reporter, later as a civil servant in the Treasury working on problems of postwar reconstruction in a global context, and at the Ministry of Education seeking to develop the teaching of world history, and finally as an independent researcher, writer and speaker.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

The Classical Era.

Part I: The Primary Concern.

1. Global Odyssey: Searching for Subsistence.

2. Civilized Centres: Settlements Become Permanent.

3. Rulers and Myths; Preconditions of Stability.

Part II: The Political Prospect.

4. Hostile Encounters: The Threat from Outside:.

5. Communication Network: Paths to Co-existence.

6. Global Response: The Spreading of the Empires.

Part III: The Religious Factor.

7. Creeds of Empire: Conformity and Allegiance.

8. Crossing Frontiers: Faiths and Universalism.

9. Division and Decline: Propaganda for Salvation.

From Classical to Modern.

The Modern Era.

Part IV: New Beginnings.

10. Movements of Peoples: Nomads and New Settlers.

11. Economic Breakthrough: New Bases of Subsistence.

12. Church and State: Twin Pillars of Stability.

Part V: Wider Identities.

13. Centuries of Empire: Global Impulse Renewed.

14. Tools of Empire: Technology of Expansion.

15. Creeds of Empire: Ideologies on the Move.

Part VI: Global Tendencies.

16. The World Economy: From Crisis to Growth.

17. Hostile Encounters: Civilizations at War.

18. Communication Network: Search for Co-existence.

Conclusion.

Bibliography.

Index.

Rezensionen

"This great little book is well-written, erudite and provides a
sweeping historical survey which anyone with an interest in world
history will find a very valuable introduction."

--Professor Anthony McGrew, Politics Department, Southampton
University

"This is a good contribution to theories of globalization,
bringing an important historical dimension to approaches that are
often ahistorical. The additional focus of civilizations rather
than nation-states is particularly interesting."

--Gerard Delanty, University of Liverpool, Network

"Noel Cowen's brave and brief text consciously imitates and
combines the broadest patterns suggested by McNeill, Wallerstein
and Braudel. His subject is not humanity but 'civilizations' that
developed significant surpluses beyond subsistence...Cowen predicts
an impending victory for financial imperialism, which has already
converted most of the world's elites into its gospel of economic
growth and higher living standards. If the human community can be
provided with a unifying history, it will not likely be built over
the sad skeleton of the history of tyrannies that Cowen's
conscientious account so clearly exposes." (Canadian Journal of
History, December 2004)

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.5.2013
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Schlagworte: Geschichte • Global politics • History • History Special Topics • Political Science • Politikwissenschaft • Spezialthemen Geschichte • Weltpolitik
• ISBN-10: 0-7456-6606-X / 074566606X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-6606-8 / 9780745666068