Traditions & Encounters offers an inclusive vision of the global past one that is meaningful and appropriate for the interdependent world of contemporary times. Given the diversity of human societies, gathering and organizing the sheer mass of information in a meaningful way is a daunting challenge for any world history survey course. The seven-part chronological organization enables students to understand the development of the world through time, while also exploring broader, big-picture thematic issues in world history. Through new and revised chapter-level and part-level features, the hallmark twin themes of traditions and encounters emerge in greater clarity than ever before in this sixth edition. As a result, students have resources that enable them to move beyond the facts of history and examine the past critically, analyze causes and effects, and recognize similarities and differences across world regions and time periods. By digging deeper into the implications of world history s stories not just the who, the what, and the where, but also the why and the how students can make sense of the human past. Connect is the only integrated learning system that empowers students by continuously adapting to deliver precisely what they need, when they need it, and how they need it, so that your class time is more engaging and effective."
The order of the book made sense some of the time, but then other times it was really confusing. I guess I just don't like history enough to like a history book though.
While perhaps 300 pages too long, this is probably one of the best textbooks I've read and I've read plenty. I genuinely enjoyed it, mostly because of the compelling writing style and format. It really helped land key concepts for me and connected bridges in my mind between certain events and cultures. I learned a lot and I understand the world a little better. That in itself is a great accomplishment.
As part of my ongoing project to read and yeet any books on my shelves that I don't love, we come to my freshman year college history textbook which was honestly surprisingly readable. I learned a lot of things and now I need a fluffy fantasy novel.
I had to read this book for my History of the World part 2 class. This book had a great deal of information in it (naturally) and a few facts even took me by surprise. One of these facts was that the four original time zones in America were set up in order to cause less confusion for train schedules and to avoid accidents. Given the fact that this book covered five hundred years of history, it was impossible to go into any great depth of information about a lot of historical events, but it does give its reader a good starting point for learning more.
This was the book assigned for my World History II class and as far as history textbooks go, I feel this is a pretty good one. In fact I was kind of sad to return my rented copy after having read all but a couple chapters. More a broad overview, it would make for good reference material concerning general info on important world events.