PART I: Foragers and Farmers, to 5000 B.C.E.
CHAPTER ONE: Out of the Ice: Peopling the Earth
So You Think You're Human
Human Evolution
Out of Africa
Peopling the Old World
Migration, Population, and Social Change
The Last Great Ice Age
Ice-Age Hunters
Ice-Age Art
Ice-Age Culture and Society
Peopling the New World
Survival of the Foragers
In Perspective: After the Ice Age
CHAPTER TWO: Out of the Mud: Farming and Herding After the Ice Age
The Problem of Agriculture
A Case in Point: Aboriginal Australians
Preagricultural Settlements
The Disadvantages of Farming
Husbandry in Different Environments
Herders' Environments
Tillers' Environments
The Spread of Agriculture
Europe
Asia
The Americas
Africa
The Pacific Islands
So Why Did Farming Start?
Population Pressure
The Outcome of Abundance
The Power of Politics
Cult Agriculture
Climatic Instability
Agriculture by Accident
Production as an Outgrowth of Procurement
In Perspective: Seeking Stability
PART TWO: Farmers and Builders, 5000 to 500 B.C.E.
CHAPTER THREE: The Great River Valleys: Accelerating Change and Developing States
Growing Communities, Divergent Cultures
Intensified Settlement and Its Effects
The Ecology of Civilization
The Great Floodplains
The Ecology of Egypt
Shifting Rivers of the Indus Valley
Fierce Nature in Early Mesopotamia
The Good Earth of Early China
Configurations of Society
Patterns of Settlement and Labor
Politics
The Egyptian State
Statecraft in Mesopotamia
The First Documented Chinese State
Ruling the Harappan World
The Politics of Expansion
Literate Culture
In Perspective: What made the Great River Valleys Different?
CHAPTER FOUR: A Succession of Civilizations: Ambition and Instability
The Case of the Hittite Kingdom
The Importance of Trade
Hittite Society and Politics
Fragility and Fall: The End of Hatti
Instability and Collapse in the Aegean
Cretan Civilization
Mycenaean Civilization
A General Crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean?
The Egyptian Experience
The Roots of Instability
The Extinction of Harappan Civilization
The Evidence of the Rig Veda
The Environment of Stress
Conflict on the Yellow River
The Rise of Zhou
The Zhou Political System
State-Building in the Americas
Andean Examples
Developments in Mesoamerica
Assessing the Damage
The Survival of Egypt
In Perspective: Fatal Flaws
CHAPTER FIVE: Rebuilding the World: Recoveries, New Initiatives, and Their Limits
Trade and Recovery in the Middle East
The Phoenician Experience
The Assyrian Empire
The Babylonian Revival
Greeceand Beyond
The Greek Environment
Greek Colonialism
Early Greek Society
The Spread of State-Building and City-Building
Empires and Recovery in China and South Asia
The Zhou Decline
South Asia: Relocated Centers of Culture
The Ganges Valley
Building Anew in Sri Lanka
The Frustrations of Isolation
Developments in North America
New Initiatives in Africa
In Perspective: The Framework of Recovery
PART III: The Axial Age, from 500 B.C.E. to 200 C.E.
CHAPTER SIX: The Great Schools
The Thinkers of the Axial Age
The Thoughts of the Axial Age
Religious Thinking
New Political Thinking
Challenging Illusion
Math
Reason
Science
Medicine
Skepticism
Axial Age-Axial Area: The Structures of the Axial Age
In Perspective: The Reach of the Sages
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Great Empires
Routes That Drew the World Together
The Sea Routes of the Indian Ocean
Land Routes: The Silk Roads
The First Eurasian Empire: Persia
The Persian Heartland
Persian Government
The Persian-Greek Wars
The Empire of Alexander the Great
The Rise of Rome
The Roman Frontiers
Imperial Culture and Commerce
The Celts
The Beginnings of Imperialism in India
Government
Asoka and His Mental World
Chinese Unity and Imperialism
Unity Endangered and Saved
The Menace from the Steppes
Beyond the Empires
Japan and Korea
The Western Eurasian Steppe
Mesoamerica
In Perspective: The Aftermath of the Axial Age
PART IV: Fitful Transitions, from about the Third Century to the Tenth Century
CHAPTER EIGHT: Postimperial Worlds: Problems of Empires in Eurasia and Africa, ca. 200 c.e. to ca. 700 c.e.
The Western Roman Empire and Its Invaders
Changes within the Roman Empire
The "Barbarian" West
Steppelanders and Their Victims
China
India
New Frontiers in Asia
Korea
Funan
The Rise of Ethiopia
The Crises of the Sixth and Seventh Centuries
Justinian and the Eastern Roman Empire
The New Barbarians
The Arabs
Islam
Arabs against Persia and Rome
The Muslim World
Recovery and Its Limits in China
Rise of the Tang
Empress Wu
Tang Decline
In The Shadow of the Tang: Tibet and Japan
Tibet
Japan
In Perspective: The Triumph Of Barbarism?
CHAPTER NINE: The Rise of World Religions: Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism
Commerce and Conflict: Carriers of Creeds
In the Islamic World
In Christendom
In the Buddhist World
Trade
Manichaeanism and the Uighurs
Christianity on the Silk Roads
Islam on Trade Routes
Monarchs and Missionaries
Constantine
Ezana
Trdat
Diplomatic Conversions
Buddhist Politics
Korea
Japan
Tibet
India
The Margins of Christendom
Vladimir and the Rus
Islam and the Turks
Trickle Down: Christianization and Islamization
Religious Lives: The World of Monks and Nuns
Christian Monasticism
Buddhist Monks
Sufism
Religious Women
In Perspective: The Triumphs of the Potential World Religions
CHAPTER TEN: Remaking the World: Innovation and Renewal on Environmental Frontiers in the Late First Millennium
Isolation and Initiative: Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas
African Geography
American Geography
The Maize Frontiers
The Islamic World and the Environment
Frontier Growth in Japan
Chinaand South Asia
The Pacific
The Expansion of Christendom
In Perspective: The Limits of Divergence
PART V: Contacts and Conflicts, 1000 C.E. to 1200 C.E.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Contending with Isolation: ca. 1000-1200
American Developments: From the Arctic to Mesoamerica
Greenland and the North
The North American Southwest and the Mississippi Region
Mesoamerica
Around The Indian Ocean: Ethiopia, the Khmer, and India
East Africa: The Ethiopian Empire
Southeast Asia: The Khmer Kingdom
India: Economy and Culture
India: The Chola Kingdom
Eurasian Extremities: Japan and Western Europe
Japan
Western Europe: Economics and Politics
Western Europe: Religion and Culture
In Perspective: The Patchwork of Effects
CHAPTER TWELEVE: The Nomadic Frontiers: the Islamic World, Byzantium, and China ca. 1000-1200
The Islamic World and Its Neighbors
The Coming of the Steppelanders
The Crusades
The Invaders from the Sahara
The Progress of Sufism
The Byzantine Empire and Its Neighbors
Byzantium and the Barbarians
Basil II
The Era of Difficulties
Byzantium and the Crusaders
Byzantine Art and Learning
Chinaand the Northern Barbarians
The End of the Tang Dynasty
The Rise of the Song and the Barbarian Conquests
Economy and Society under the Song
Song Art and Learning
In Perspective: Cains and Abels
PART VI: The Crucible: The Eurasian Crises of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The World the Mongols Made
The Mongols: Reshaping Eurasia
The Mongol Steppe
The Mongol World beyond the Steppes: The Silk Roads, China, Persia and Russia
China
Persia
Russia
The Limits of Conquest: Mamluk Egypt and Muslim India
Muslim India: The Dehli Sultanate
EUROPE
IN PERSPECTIVE: The Uniqueness of the Mongols
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The Revenge of Nature: Plague, Cold, and the Limits of Disaster in the Fourteenth Century
Climate Change
The Coming of the Age of Plague
The Course and Impact of Plague
Moral and Social Effects
The Limits of Disaster: Beyond the Plague Zone
India
Southeast Asia
Japan
Mali
The Pacific: Societies of Isolation
In Perspective: The Aftershock
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Expanding Worlds: Recovery in the Late Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Fragile Empires in Africa
East Africa
West Africa
Ecological Imperialism in the Americas
The Inca Empire
The Aztec Empire
New Eurasian Empires
The Russian Empire
The Ottoman Empire
The Limitations of Chinese Imperialism
The Beginnings of Oceanic Imperialism
The European Outlook: Problems and Promise
In Perspective: Beyond Empires
