World History: The Basics

The Basics

by Peter N. Stearns

World History has rapidly grown to become one of the most popular and talked about approaches to the study of history. World History: The Basics introduces this fast-growing field and addresses key questions such as:

What is world history?

How do we study a subject with such a broad geographic and chronological range?

Why has world history been controversial?

Written by one of the founders of the field and addressing all of the major issues including time, place, civilizations, contact, themes and more, this book is both an ideal introduction to world history and an important statement about the past, present and future of the field.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World History

208 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2010

About the author

Peter Nathaniel Stearns is a professor at George Mason University, where he was provost from January 1, 2000 to July 2014.
Stearns was chair of the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University and also served as the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (now named Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences) at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, he founded and edited the Journal of Social History. While at Carnegie Mellon, he developed a pioneering approach to teaching World History, and has contributed to the field as well through editing, and contributing to, the Routledge series, Themes in World History. He is also known for various work on the nature and impact of the industrial revolution and for exploration of new topics, particularly in the history of emotions.
He is active in historical groups such as the American Historical Association, the Society for French Historical Studies, the Social Science History Association and the International Society for Research on Emotion.