Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Request Exam Copy

Print Price: $44.99

Format:
Paperback
240 pp.
7.5" x 9.25"

ISBN-13:
9780190901936

Copyright Year:
2019

Imprint: OUP US

Sources for Forging the Modern World

A History, Second Edition

James Carter and Richard Warren

In Forging the Modern World: A History, authors James Carter and Richard Warren offer an accessible explanation of key transformations in global economic, political, and ideological relationships since the sixteenth century. The book is distinct from most world history texts in three important ways. First, it explores the ways in which historians use and produce information. Each chapter delves deeply into one or two specific issues of historical inquiry related to the chapter theme, showing how new primary sources, methodologies, or intellectual trends have changed how we engage with the past. Second, it clearly explains the political, economic, and ideological concepts that students need to understand in order to compare events and trends across time and space. Finally, the chapters are organized around global historical themes, which are explored through an array of conceptual and comparative lenses. While the book chapters proceed chronologically, each chapter is written with some chronological overlap linking it to preceding and subsequent chapters. This strategy emphasizes the interconnectedness between the events and themes of one chapter and those of surrounding chapters. A companion sourcebook follows the main book's organization and includes approximately 6-7 primary sources with two questions following each source.

Readership : Undergraduate students.

Reviews

"Forging the Modern World offers a succinct introduction to the modern era in world history, and manages to do so without engaging in oversimplification. Furthermore, the authors convey this history while simultaneously providing useful lessons about how professional historians research, write, and debate understandings of the past. The textbook thus functions not only as an accessible primer in World History but also as an introduction to the historical profession."
--Christopher Ferguson, Auburn University
"Forging the Modern World is among the best modern world history books on the market today. It is well-written, concise, and focuses on the key historical processes that have shaped the modern world. It also comes with a relatively low price, which helps students on a tight budget."
--J. Justin Castro, Arkansas State University
"After using this text for nearly two semesters, I have found Forging the Modern World's major strength to be its accessibility for students. The narrative is concise and readable, yet still does a wonderful job of adding major scholarship on topics and relevant interpretation. I know my students are reading this book. For the first time in years, I have students make comments or ask questions in class starting with, 'in the textbook, it talked about....'. This allows for classroom discussions and opportunities for me to expand on topics that students would have glazed over in previous texts."
--Suzanne Shoaf Smith, Cape Fear Community College

List of Maps
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
INTRODUCTION Forging the Modern World
What is this Book About?
The Modern World
Sources and Methods
Practicing History
Recommended Reading
Agency and Contingency
A Few Good Books
1. The Many Worlds of the Fifteenth Century 1405-1510
Political and Economic Order on the Afro-Eurasian Supercontinent
The Rise and Fall of States in Afro-Eurasia
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: THE VOYAGES OF ZHENG HE
American Empires of the Fifteenth Century
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
2. The New Global Interface 1486-1639
The Conquest Era
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: INDIGENOUS POPULATION DECLINE
From Conquest to Colonialism
A World Connected
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
3. The Paradoxes of Early Modern Empire 1501-1661
The Words and Deeds of Empire Building
Tangled Loyalties and the European Wars of Religion
Collapse and Restoration of Empire in China
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: THE QING CONQUEST
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
4. Production and Consumption in the First Global 1571-1701
Agricultural Production
Staple Foods
The Sugar-Slave Plantation System
Global Trade Networks
Silver and Global Economy
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: SILVER MINING IN SPANISH AMERICA
States and Economic Activity
Conclusion
A Few Good Reads
5. Global War and Imperial Reform 1655-1765
Consolidating the Center: Modernizing Monarchies
The Question of Control in the Atlantic Seaborne Empires
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: THE SLAVE TRADE
The Path to World War Zero
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
6. A New Order for the Ages 1755-1839
What is Enlightenment?
Revolution and Reaction
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: HOW RADICAL WAS THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION?
The Collapse of Iberian Empires in the Americas
New Challenges of Political Organization
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
7. The Engines of Industrialization 1787-1868
What is Revoluationary about Industrialization?
Spinning the Industrial Revolution Story
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Life During the Industrial Revolution
The Transformation of Global Power Relations
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
8. Modernity Organized 1840-1889
Reform versus Revolution
Nation and Citizen in the Western Hemisphere
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: ABOLITION, MIGRATION, AND THE GLOBAL LABOR FORCE
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
9. Globalization and Its Discontents 1878-1910
The New Imperialism and Neo-colonialism
The Impact of Imperialism in Africa and India
Sovereignty and Conflict in East Asia
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR
Challenging Modernity at its Core
The Price of Progress in the Western Hemisphere
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
10. Total War and Mass Society 1905-1928
Theory meets Reality in Modern Warfare
A Great War
The Global Repercussions of the Great War
Negotiating the Future in the Shadow of the Great War
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: LITERATURE AS SOURCES
Which Way Forward?
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
11. The Ongoing Crisis of Global Order 1919-1948
Eurasia After the Great War
A Communist World Future?
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: FAMINE IN THE UKRAINE
The Global Economy in the 1920s
The Collapse of the Post-War Order
War Without Limits
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
12. Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and Decolonization 1942-1975
Uncomfortable Allies Plan the Future
The Global Cold War
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: KENYA AND DECOLONIZATION
Economic Development and Nonalignment: Three Worlds?
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
13. The Many Worlds of the Twenty-first Century 1972-2012
Shifts in the Global Political Dynamic
Transitions in the Communist World in the 1980s
HISTORIANS EXPLORE: THE END OF THE COLD WAR
The End of History and Its Quick Return
Economic Integration
Conclusion
A Few Good Books
Epilogue
Credits
Index

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

James Carter is Professor of History at Saint Joseph's University, in Philadelphia, and holds a PhD in Modern Chinese history from Yale University. He is the author of Creating a Chinese Harbin (Cornell, 2002) and Heart of Buddha, Heart of China (Oxford, 2010), among other publications. When not teaching Forging the Modern World, he writes about the history of cultural interactions between China and the West.

Richard Warren is Professor of History at Saint Joseph's University, where he has served on the faculty since 1995. He is the author of numerous works on the political culture of modern Mexico, including Vagrants and Citizens: Politics and the Masses in Mexico City from Colony to Republic (Scholarly Resources, 2001).

Writing History - William Kelleher Storey and Towser Jones

Special Features

This is a global history produced with great attention to the potential for what books can do as tools for historical learning. Its themes, qualities, and authorial voice are consistent throughout. In addition, the many maps and images were chosen with care to add significant value to the book as a learning tool.
The book makes an argument about how the modern world came to be without attempting an encyclopedic overview. It provides a framing narrative against which additional cases can be compared and contrasted, enabling instructors to use their areas of interest/expertise to best effect in the classroom. Students have a readable, coherent, unintimidating text, and instructors have a useful pedagogical tool around which to construct the course.
Forging the Modern World emerged from a question the authors asked themselves: if we had only one history course that we could teach every university student, what would that course look like? Their answer had two key parts. The first was that they wanted to help students understand the development of the most important structures through which people around the world relate to each other: both the structures and the people who act within them are critical to the story they wanted to tell. The second was to pull back the curtain on what historical inquiry is, so that their students could better understand the distinction between the past and history, and could learn to analyze historical arguments (including those made by their instructors).