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A leader in the field presents a cohesive narrative of world
history that effectively addresses the main challenge of the
introductory survey: how to navigate beginning students through the
vast detail of the subject. McNeill uses connective webs-along
which trade, religious beliefs, technologies, pathogens and much
more travelled-to organise details and keep the big picture in
view. Students emerge with clear takeaways and a strong sense of
the basic dynamics of world history. Together with digital
resources that amplify the webs approach and highlight diverse
types of evidence, John McNeill's The Webs of Humankind offers a
clear and effective teaching tool for the world history survey
course.
A leader in the field presents a cohesive narrative of world
history that effectively addresses the main challenge of the
introductory survey: how to navigate beginning students through the
vast detail of the subject. McNeill uses connective webs-along
which trade, religious beliefs, technologies, pathogens and much
more travelled-to organise details and keep the big picture in
view. Students emerge with clear takeaways and a strong sense of
the basic dynamics of world history. Together with digital
resources that amplify the webs approach and highlight diverse
types of evidence, John McNeill's The Webs of Humankind offers a
clear and effective teaching tool for the world history survey
course.
The fate of towns and cities stands at the center of the
environmental history of World War II. Broad swaths of cityscapes
were destroyed by the bombing of targets such as transport hubs,
electrical grids, and industrial districts, and across Europe,
Asia, and the Americas, urban environments were transformed by the
massive mobilization of human and natural resources to support the
conflict. But at the same time, the war saw remarkable resilience
among the human and non-human residents of cities. Foregrounding
the concept of urban resilience, this collection uncovers the
creative survival strategies that city-dwellers of all kinds turned
to in the midst of environmental devastation. As the first major
study at the intersection of environmental, urban, and military
history, The Resilient City in World War II lays the groundwork for
an improved understanding of rapid change in urban environments,
and how societies may adapt.
This book explores the links among ecology, disease, and
international politics in the context of the Greater Caribbean -
the landscapes lying between Surinam and the Chesapeake - in the
seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. Ecological changes
made these landscapes especially suitable for the vector mosquitoes
of yellow fever and malaria, and these diseases wrought systematic
havoc among armies and would-be settlers. Because yellow fever
confers immunity on survivors of the disease, and because malaria
confers resistance, these diseases played partisan roles in the
struggles for empire and revolution, attacking some populations
more severely than others. In particular, yellow fever and malaria
attacked newcomers to the region, which helped keep the Spanish
Empire Spanish in the face of predatory rivals in the seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries. In the late eighteenth and through
the nineteenth century, these diseases helped revolutions to
succeed by decimating forces sent out from Europe to prevent them.
The Earth has entered a new age-the Anthropocene-in which humans
are the most powerful influence on global ecology. Since the
mid-twentieth century, the accelerating pace of energy use,
greenhouse gas emissions, and population growth has thrust the
planet into a massive uncontrolled experiment. The Great
Acceleration explains its causes and consequences, highlighting the
role of energy systems, as well as trends in climate change,
urbanization, and environmentalism. More than any other factor,
human dependence on fossil fuels inaugurated the Anthropocene.
Before 1700, people used little in the way of fossil fuels, but
over the next two hundred years coal became the most important
energy source. When oil entered the picture, coal and oil soon
accounted for seventy-five percent of human energy use. This
allowed far more economic activity and produced a higher standard
of living than people had ever known-but it created far more
ecological disruption. We are now living in the Anthropocene. The
period from 1945 to the present represents the most anomalous
period in the history of humanity's relationship with the
biosphere. Three-quarters of the carbon dioxide humans have
contributed to the atmosphere has accumulated since World War II
ended, and the number of people on Earth has nearly tripled. So
far, humans have dramatically altered the planet's biogeochemical
systems without consciously managing them. If we try to control
these systems through geoengineering, we will inaugurate another
stage of the Anthropocene. Where it might lead, no one can say for
sure.
Environmental Histories of the Cold War explores the links between
the Cold War and the global environment, ranging from the
environmental impacts of nuclear weapons to the political
repercussions of environmentalism. Environmental change accelerated
sharply during the Cold War years, and so did environmentalism as
both a popular movement and a scientific preoccupation. Most Cold
War history entirely overlooks this rise of environmentalism and
the crescendo of environmental change. These historical subjects
were not only simultaneous but also linked together in ways both
straightforward and surprising. The contributors to this book
present these connected issues as a global phenomenon, with
chapters concerning China, the USSR, Europe, North America,
Oceania, and elsewhere. The role of experts as agents and advocates
of using the environment as a weapon in the Cold War or,
contrastingly, of preventing environmental damage resulting from
Cold War politics is also given broad attention.
This exciting new reader in environmental history provides a
framework for understanding the relations between ecosystems and
world-systems over time. Alf Hornborg, J. R. McNeill, and Joan
Martinez-Alier have brought together a group of the foremost
writers from the social, historical, and geographical sciences to
provide an overview of the ecological dimension of global, economic
processes, with a long-term, historical perspective. Readers are
challenged to integrate studies of the Earth-system with studies of
the world-system, and to reconceptualize the relations between
human beings and their environment, as well as the challenges of
global sustainability.
World-historical questions such as these, the subjects of major
works by Jared Diamond, David Landes, and others, are now of great
moment as global frictions increase. In a spirited and original
contribution to this quickening discussion, two renowned
historians, father and son, explore the webs that have drawn humans
together in patterns of interaction and exchange, cooperation and
competition, since earliest times. Whether small or large, loose or
dense, these webs have provided the medium for the movement of
ideas, goods, power, and money within and across cultures,
societies, and nations. From the thin, localized webs that
characterized agricultural communities twelve thousand years ago,
through the denser, more interactive metropolitan webs that
surrounded ancient Sumer, Athens, and Timbuktu, to the electrified
global web that today envelops virtually the entire world in a
maelstrom of cooperation and competition, J. R. McNeill and William
H. McNeill show human webs to be a key component of world history
and a revealing framework of analysis. Avoiding any determinism,
environmental or cultural, the McNeills give us a synthesizing
picture of the big patterns of world history in a rich, open-ended,
concise account.
Within the chronological framework of implantation, maturity, and
transition, "Atlantic American Societies" traces the history of
European expansion in the Americas. Suggesting a shift in the
traditional analysis of history away from nationally defined
boundaries, Alan Karras and John McNeill treat the Atlantic world
as a whole, encouraging the reader to see the larger inter-imperial
issues which governed behavior in both the new world and the old.
Emphasizing the links between Africa, Europe, and the Americas, the
authors outline the process of transatlantic intercultural
integration that began after the voyages of Columbus.
Providing readers with a mechanism for viewing inter-imperial
rivalries, "Atlantic American Societies" focuses not only on the
commercial and demographic history and military and economic
interaction between metropolitan regions and their colonies, but
also on the cultural components of American expansion. Combining a
variety of approaches, from epidemiological to labor history and
ethnohistory, this volume explores the societies of the Atlantic
region and their blend of Amer-Indian, West European, and West
African influences. Collecting some of the best recent scholarship
from African, Latin American, and North American sources, "Atlantic
and American Societies" opens a new perspective on this region.
Within the chronological framework of Implantation, Maturation and Transition, this book provides the history of European expansion in the Americas from the age of Columbus through the abolition of slavery. Suggesting a shift in the traditional units of analysis away from nationally defined boundaries, this volume considers all of the Americas - and Africa - to encourage students to see the larger interimperial issues which governed behaviour in both the new world and the old. It also provides students with a mechanism for viewing interimperial rivalries from the largest possible perspective, by focusing, not only on commercial and demographic history and military and economic interaction between metropolitan regions and their colonies, but on the interdependence of European, African, and Amerindian peoples and culture.
This anthology surveys the ecological impacts of the First World
War. Editors Richard P. Tucker, Tait Keller, J. R. McNeill, and
Martin Schmidt bring together a list of experienced authors who
explore the global interactions of states, armies, civilians, and
the environment during the war. They show how the First World War
ushered in enormous environmental changes, including the
devastation of rural and urban environments, the consumption of
strategic natural resources such as metals and petroleum, the
impact of war on urban industry, and the disruption of agricultural
landscapes leading to widespread famine. Taking a global
perspective, Environmental Histories of the First World War
presents the ecological consequences of the vast destructive power
of the new weaponry and the close collaboration between militaries
and civilian governments taking place during this time, showing how
this war set trends for the rest of the century.
The history of the twentieth century is most often told through its
world wars, the rise and fall of communism, or its economic
upheavals. In his startling new book, J. R. McNeill gives us our
first general account of what may prove to be the most significant
dimension of the twentieth century: its environmental history. To a
degree unprecedented in human history, we have refashioned the
earth's air, water, and soil, and the biosphere of which we are a
part. Based on exhaustive research, McNeill's story a compelling
blend of anecdotes, data, and shrewd analysis never preaches: it is
our definitive account. This is a volume in The Global Century
Series (general editor, Paul Kennedy)."
The fate of towns and cities stands at the center of the
environmental history of World War II. Broad swaths of cityscapes
were destroyed by the bombing of targets such as transport hubs,
electrical grids, and industrial districts, and across Europe,
Asia, and the Americas, urban environments were transformed by the
massive mobilization of human and natural resources to support the
conflict. But at the same time, the war saw remarkable resilience
among the human and non-human residents of cities. Foregrounding
the concept of urban resilience, this collection uncovers the
creative survival strategies that city-dwellers of all kinds turned
to in the midst of environmental devastation. As the first major
study at the intersection of environmental, urban, and military
history, The Resilient City in World War II lays the groundwork for
an improved understanding of rapid change in urban environments,
and how societies may adapt.
Global Interdependence provides a new account of world history from
the end of World War II to the present, an era when transnational
communities began to challenge the long domination of the
nation-state. In this single-volume survey, leading scholars
elucidate the political, economic, cultural, and environmental
forces that have shaped the planet in the past sixty years.
Offering fresh insight into international politics since 1945,
Wilfried Loth examines how miscalculations by both the United
States and the Soviet Union brought about a Cold War conflict that
was not necessarily inevitable. Thomas Zeiler explains how American
free-market principles spurred the creation of an entirely new
economic order--a global system in which goods and money flowed
across national borders at an unprecedented rate, fueling growth
for some nations while also creating inequalities in large parts of
the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. From an environmental
viewpoint, J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke contend that humanity
has entered a new epoch, the Anthropocene era, in which massive
industrialization and population growth have become the most
powerful influences upon global ecology. Petra Goedde analyzes how
globalization has impacted indigenous cultures and questions the
extent to which a generic culture has erased distinctiveness and
authenticity. She shows how, paradoxically, the more cultures
blended, the more diversified they became as well. Combining these
different perspectives, volume editor Akira Iriye presents a model
of transnational historiography in which individuals and groups
enter history not primarily as citizens of a country but as
migrants, tourists, artists, and missionaries--actors who create
networks that transcend traditional geopolitical boundaries.
This book explores the links among ecology, disease, and
international politics in the context of the Greater Caribbean -
the landscapes lying between Surinam and the Chesapeake - in the
seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. Ecological changes
made these landscapes especially suitable for the vector mosquitoes
of yellow fever and malaria, and these diseases wrought systematic
havoc among armies and would-be settlers. Because yellow fever
confers immunity on survivors of the disease, and because malaria
confers resistance, these diseases played partisan roles in the
struggles for empire and revolution, attacking some populations
more severely than others. In particular, yellow fever and malaria
attacked newcomers to the region, which helped keep the Spanish
Empire Spanish in the face of predatory rivals in the seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries. In the late eighteenth and through
the nineteenth century, these diseases helped revolutions to
succeed by decimating forces sent out from Europe to prevent them.
This anthology surveys the ecological impacts of the First World
War. Editors Richard P. Tucker, Tait Keller, J. R. McNeill, and
Martin Schmidt bring together a list of experienced authors who
explore the global interactions of states, armies, civilians, and
the environment during the war. They show how the First World War
ushered in enormous environmental changes, including the
devastation of rural and urban environments, the consumption of
strategic natural resources such as metals and petroleum, the
impact of war on urban industry, and the disruption of agricultural
landscapes leading to widespread famine. Taking a global
perspective, Environmental Histories of the First World War
presents the ecological consequences of the vast destructive power
of the new weaponry and the close collaboration between militaries
and civilian governments taking place during this time, showing how
this war set trends for the rest of the century.
Since 1750, the world has become ever more connected, with
processes of production and destruction no longer limited by land-
or water-based modes of transport and communication. Volume 7 of
the Cambridge World History series, divided into two books, offers
a variety of angles of vision on the increasingly interconnected
history of humankind. The first book examines structures, spaces,
and processes within which and through which the modern world was
created, including the environment, energy, technology, population,
disease, law, industrialization, imperialism, decolonization,
nationalism, and socialism, along with key world regions.
Since 1750, the world has become ever more connected, with
processes of production and destruction no longer limited by land-
or water-based modes of transport and communication. Volume 7 of
the Cambridge World History series, divided into two books, offers
a variety of angles of vision on the increasingly interconnected
history of humankind. The second book questions the extent to which
the transformations of the modern world have been shared, focusing
on social developments such as urbanization, migration, and changes
in family and sexuality; cultural connections through religion,
science, music, and sport; ligaments of globalization including
rubber, drugs, and the automobile; and moments of particular
importance from the Atlantic Revolutions to 1989.
This exciting new reader in environmental history provides a
framework for understanding the relations between ecosystems and
world-systems over time. Alf Hornborg, J. R. McNeill, and Joan
Martinez-Alier have brought together a group of the foremost
writers from the social, historical, and geographical sciences to
provide an overview of the ecological dimension of global, economic
processes, with a long-term, historical perspective. Readers are
challenged to integrate studies of the Earth-system with studies of
the world-system, and to reconceptualize the relations between
human beings and their environment, as well as the challenges of
global sustainability.
Environmental Histories of the Cold War explores the links between
the Cold War and the global environment, ranging from the
environmental impacts of nuclear weapons to the political
repercussions of environmentalism. Environmental change accelerated
sharply during the Cold War years, and so did environmentalism as
both a popular movement and a scientific preoccupation. Most Cold
War history entirely overlooks this rise of environmentalism and
the crescendo of environmental change. These historical subjects
were not only simultaneous but also linked together in ways both
straightforward and surprising. The contributors to this book
present these connected issues as a global phenomenon, with
chapters concerning China, the USSR, Europe, North America,
Oceania, and elsewhere. The role of experts as agents and advocates
of using the environment as a weapon in the Cold War or,
contrastingly, of preventing environmental damage resulting from
Cold War politics is also given broad attention.
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