We study world history to discern common rituals, problems, and patterns that do not stop at a territorial boundary. A history that accurately reflects the past must recognize that wars, battles, and empires barely touch how lives were lived, whether as an artisan, slave, trader, soldier,
pilgrim, or doctor. World history is not about merely analyzing documents and amassing or memorizing facts. It is about learning to consider big questions that matter across the whole of human experience. Such themes do not stay in the past. They are the very stuff of our present and make us aware
of our responsibilities to the future. In A History of the World in Seven Themes Stewart Gordon invites students and teachers to analyze, debate, and consider a broad range of questions.
List of Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Foreword
Chapter 1. People and Plants: On the Move
The Big Picture: Searching for Food
Hominids and Humans
Plants on the Move
Plants, Wild and Domesticated
Successful Food Domestication
Three
Foods: Rice, Wheat, and Corn
Rice Cultivation in Asia
All the Wheat in Rome
Managing Maize in Mexico
The Case of the Banana
Food Movement and Empires
The Bigger Picture: Does Movement of Plants Matter?
Challenging the Neolithic Wave: A New Model
Chapter 2. Honor
and Loyalty: Blood, Robes, and Salt
The Big Picture: Inspiring Loyalty
Barbur: Loyalty and Power
The Unreliable Bonds of Blood Kinship
Bending the Knee
Robes: A Language of Loyalty and Service
Babur: Loyalty in Bad Times and Good
The Code of Salt
Babur in
India
The Decline of the Blood-Robes-Salt World
The Bigger Picture: Loyalty Across Time and Place
Chapter 3. Bonds of Slavery
The Big Picture: Beyond Hollywood
The Paleolithic Era and Slavery Throughout Time and Place
Guides: The Enslavement of Richard Haselton and Malik
Ambar
Islam and Military Slavery
Haselton, Slavery, and the Inquisition
Malik Ambar Rises in the Ranks
The Larger World of Slavery
The End of Haselton's Story
The Bigger Picture: The Legacy of Slavery
Interpretation of Slavery
Disappearance of Slavery
State
Slavery
A New Form of Slavery
Chapter 4. Sex, Gender, and Patriarchy
The Big Picture: Boys to Men, Girls to Women
The Rise of Patriarchy
Gendered Behavior: The Nonconformists
Abelard
Heloise
Heloise and Abelard
Love and Punishment
Castration in the
Service of Patriarchy
Why Eunuchs?
Heloise and Abelard: The End of the Story
The Bigger Picture: Thinking about Gender
Modern Comparisons
The Future of Patriarchy
Chapter 5. Pilgrimage: The Journey of Purpose
The Big Picture: Spiritual Benefits
Chaco
Canyon
Pilgrimage on the Silk Road
The Sacred Route o Santiago de Compostela
Ibn Battuta on the Road to Mecca
In the Presence of Buddhist Relics
Bound for Compostela
Ibn Battuta: Back on the Road to Mecca
Faxian Reaches His Goal
In the Presence of Saint James
The
Bigger Picture: Common Features of Pilgrimage
Chapter 6. The Human Side of Trade
The Big Picture: Long-Term, Long-Distance Trade
A Young Man Sets Out
Riches of the Geniza
Aden and Spices
A Commenda in Malabar
Risk Management
Contours of a Moral Trading
Community
A Slave Girl and Love
A Slave Named Bama
Abraham and Metallurgy
Varieties of Slavery in a Moral Trading World
Family Tragedy
The Bigger Picture: New Ways to Think about Global Trade
Chapter 7. Technology: Glass and Iron
The Big Picture: Technology,
Driver of History?
Faience: A Near-Glass
Rulers and Glass
Iron: The Bloomery Method
African Iron: Evidence and Questions
Egypt: The Uses of Glass
Glassmaking in China
Iron Objects in Africa
Amarna: A Mediterranean Glass Center
Technology: Transfer and
Nontransfer
The Roman Connection: Empire and Technology
Byzantium: A New Market for Glass
The Bigger Picture: Incremental Experimentation
Technology Was always Local
Environment Matters
Knockoffs Appear
Knowledge Is Fragile
The Trickle-Down
Effect
Afterword
Notes
Credits
Index
Instructor Resources:
- BBC Videos
- Image and Map PowerPoints
- Instructor's Manual
- Essay Questions
Student Resources:
- BBC Videos
- Flashcards
- Note-Taking Guide
Stewart Gordon is an Independent Research Scholar associated with the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan.
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