Presents a brief, narrative history of the world , from the Stone Age up to the end of World War II.

A reference guide to world history, featuring a timeline, key date boxes, and biographies of historical figures.

"Human history is largely a record of failure. Economic strife, inflation, military overstretch, foreign warfare, domestic unrest, famine, and disease have always conspired against us and usually defeated us. More often than not, we have to struggle through hard times, enduring a substantial reduction in living standards and state capacity, or the total collapse of institutions. At the end of the twentieth century, people scoffed at such ideas. In...

Collects maps of the greatest empires, battles, and social changes throughout history from the ice age and the vikings to the Industrial Revolution and D-Day.

"A transporting and illuminating voyage around the globe, through classic and modern literary works that are in conversation with one another and with the world around them. Inspired by Jules Verne's hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University's department of comparative literature and founder of Harvard's Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic's restrictions on travel by exploring eighty exceptional books...

Geography plays one of the most important roles in a civilization's development, and this holds true for the ancient Greeks. But it is the Greek experiments in government that drove much of their success. Tour the ancient Greek city-states of Athens, Sparta, and more to find out how they were governed, and how they dealt with conflicts.

A celebration of unheard and under-heard women's history. Meet nearly 1000 women whose names deserve to be better known: from the Mothers of Invention and the trailblazing women at the Bar; Warrior Queens and Pirate Commanders; the women who dedicated their lives to the natural world or to medicine; those women of courage who resisted and fought for what they believed in to defend their families, their culture and their countries; to the unsung heroes...