A thematic and comparative approach allows students to discern common patterns and important differences. Each chapter explores a topic or theme as experienced by two or more cultures. Students can trace parallel developments in separate regions, such as the development of society in ancient Greece and India in Chapter 3, Identity in Caste and Territorial Societies, or the advent of nationalism in Japan and India in Chapter 23, World War I and Its Consequences: Europe and the World. In other cases, students can examine the enduring effects of contact and exchange between cultures, as in the chapter on Mongol and Viking raiding and settlements from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries, or Volume 2’s chapter on the scientific revolution in Europe, the Ottoman Empire, China, Japan, and the Americas. Even the normally divergent study of the Cold War can be expanded, as documents in Chapter 26 relating to the superpowers’ fight to control the emerging “Third World” show.

Thinking Historically exercises build students’ historical thinking skills. Each chapter begins with a “Historical Context” introduction that sets the stage for directed comparisons among the chapter’s readings. The “Thinking Historically” section follows, which introduces a particular critical thinking skill — such as asking about author, audience, and agenda or distinguishing causes of change — that is designed to mine the chapter’s selections. Introductions preceding each selection provide additional context, while document-specific “Thinking Historically” content poses questions to encourage close analysis of the selections using the critical thinking skill introduced at the beginning of the chapter. Explanatory gloss notes and pronunciation guides throughout help ensure comprehension of the readings. A set of “Reflections” that both summarizes and extends the chapter’s lessons concludes each chapter.
 

A wide array of primary and secondary sources offers an abundance of material to work with. Primary sources, which make up two thirds of the readings, range from The Book of the City of Ladies, by Christine de Pizan, to On Care for Our Common Home, by Pope Francis. The secondary sources include both essential classic works and current research with such thought-provoking selections as “Women and Marriage in Europe and China,” by Mary Jo Maynes and Ann Waltner; Aromas of Tang China, Edward H. Schafer; and “Globalization’s Backlash Is Here, at Just the Wrong Time,” by Neil Irwin.