A GENUINE WORLD FOCUS Global connections seeks to establish links between all humans and human activity through the study of culture through the lens of history.
TELLS THE STORY OF HISTORY Introduce the key concepts of the modern social sciences through a dynamic historical narrative to appeal to the widest possible audience.
EVERYBODY MAKES HISTORY How ordinary people have creatively shaped not only their own lives, but the everyday experiences of social life and how they are connected to the great political events and commercial exchanges of an interconnected world.
ENCOURAGES ANALYTICAL THINKING Every narrative is linked to the questions social scientists ask, stressing it’s not just what happened, but why that makes world history interesting.
USE OF BASIC CONCEPTS TO ILLUSTRATE PATTERNS Principles such as commercialization, militarization, stratification, state formation, industrialization, imperialism, and proletarianization give shape to the narrative to illustrate how the myriad details of history do fall into patterns that clarify our understanding—these patterns are then examined comparatively across borders.
HISTORY TRANSCENDS WRITTEN RECORDS The broad-view narrative is oriented toward social and material history, combining textual, material, visual, and quantitative evidence, to glean valuable clues about the social lives of many ordinary people—including groups that did not leave written records—in the past.
CONNECTING THE PAST TO THE PRESENT Each development in history influences and effects our lives on a daily basis. Understanding our past can help us contextualize not only our present, but our future, as well.
UNEQUIVOCAL SCHOLARSHIP The study of global connections helps scholars understand their role in their own lives, their societies, and the greater world. This broad view of history will position them to think globally, as well as locally, in a way that will make them more empathetic and knowledgeable.
DELIBERATE FOCUS ON READABILITY AND PRESENTATION The narrative moves gradually from particular and detailed examples into central issues of world history, enabling scholars to find a familiar structure to the story of each place and time so they can refer to comparative evidence across different regions.
ACCOUNTING FOR THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT Global Connections emphasizes the constraints (and misuse) of the physical environment on explaining differences between regions and eras.
A listing of major events, people, and concepts chunked into neat little time section by Joe Kirby.
