Book Description

After teaching world history to college freshmen for two decades, the author was dissatisfied with the available textbooks, which smoothed over thorny historical debates in favor of uncontroversial, seamless, and bland narratives. Because students did not have to use the historical facts they read to answer questions that they themselves cared about concerning the current world, they rarely recalled the facts long after an exam. So, the author wrote this text to help his students enter into open-ended historical conversations. They explore the Enlightenment, and decide if it is a hypocritical screen for white male privilege or a slow-unfolding tool for universal liberation. They consider the ongoing industrial revolution, which has lowered consumer prices while posing social challenges for over 200 years, and which continues to replace jobs and concentrate wealth. They critique the effectiveness of economic systems to pair with industrialization: laissez-faire capitalism, colonialism, anarchism, Marxism, and socialism. They consider the strengths and challenges of nationalism, and consider strategies for avoiding war and ethnic cleansing. They analyze the rise of modern China as a superpower, and debate whether or not it is likely to surpass the United States in economic output and global influence. They analyze the most arresting current developments: the global rise of women, the challenge of climate change, the impact of mechanization and globalization on jobs, and the return of anti-democratic authoritarianism. Although the author is an American liberal, evidence and arguments are regularly offered from alternative points of view. Indeed, the text is designed to improve understanding of perspectives from other parts of the world and to promote dialogue between conservatives, liberals, and radicals in the U.S.