The book gives a nice summary of various cultures and regions though it doesn't go into much detail. In the Middle East section, the part on the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates further fails to the extremely important factors of the caliphates' economic system such as standardized gold dinar and silver dirham based currency system to facilitate trade, not to mention the continuity of some of the Sasanian administrative structures. For example in the section on the peoples of East Africa and their involvement with Indian Ocean maritime trade, there is no mention that they were involved in the trade of key trade goods desired by the Roman Empire's as well as the Indian kingdoms' markets. A further curious omission is the impact of trade relations between regions, whether it was simply the exchange of foreign goods or ritualized tribute. It does have some glaring omissions, not the least are the matter of how these regional systems operated and how they were interpreted locally across time. The book is comprehensive in the extent that it does cover multiple regions across the world. Reviewed by Tommy Tran, Lecturer, University of California, Merced on 3/11/20 This would make a wonderful addition to any course (both undergraduate and graduate) that examines world history. The book seems to be sensitive to different peoples. It contains maps that are quite beautiful. The book has no features that would distract readers. Chapters also have sidebars that delve into interesting, supplemental topics. The text is lucidly organized and incorporates questions for students as well as bibliographies for further reading. The author breaks down larger, more complicated topics into smaller, more digestible chapters for students. The different chapters could be used in a course on world history. The introductory chapter discusses the book's framework and the terminology used in the ret of the tet. The framework and terminology is consistent throughout.
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The book is elegantly written and free of jargon. This would be relevant to a world history course. Everything was human or animal powered and this is not necessarily a limitation.
A more accurate way to describe technology in the Americas would be that the ancient peoples were able to develop sophisticated societies through the use of human ingenuity that did not rely on machines. The text seems relatively unbiased, but the chapter on the Americas - my field of study- does contain some biases, such as the claim that the people of the Americas were "limited in the technologies at their disposal" (151). Gauging the accuracy of this text requires the reviewer to be proficient in all aspects of world history. Each of its eight chapters focuses on a different area of the world: China and East Asia, India, the Muslim Caliphates, Mongo Khanates, Africa, the Americas, and Europe. This comprehensive text examines the history of international relations from a non-European perspective. Reviewed by Christina Bueno, Professor, Northeastern Illinois University on 4/28/21