Become a more sophisticated thinker with THINKING CRITICALLY, which teaches you a surefire process for developing the thinking abilities you need for academic and career success. First, you'll build your confidence by learning and practicing basic skills related to your personal experiences. Next, you'll progress to the types of reasoning skills required for abstract contexts -- such as your academic courses. Activities and writing assignments invite your active participation and prompt you and your peers to critically examine each other's thinking. Thought-provoking and current readings from a wide variety of thinkers engage you in thinking about complex issues from different perspectives. Along the way, monitor your own progress as a critical thinker with self-assessment activities.

With the closure of the overland Silk Road in the fourteenth century following the collapse of the Mongol empire, the Indian Ocean provided the remaining vital link for wider cultural, political, and societal integrations prior to the Western colonial presence. Collectively, these studies explore the history of non-metropolitan urban settings c. 1400-1800 in the Indian Ocean realm, from the Ottoman Empire and the African coastline at the mouth of the Red Sea in the west to China in the east. This was an age of heightened international commercial exchange that pre-dated the European arrival, which in the Indian Ocean paired Islamic expansionism and political authority, and, alternately, in the case of mainland Southeast Asia, partnered Buddhism with new centralizing monarchies. While grounded in multi-disciplinary urban studies literature, the twelve studies in this collection explore secondary center networking, as this networking distinguishes secondary cities from metropolitan centers, which have traditionally received the most scholarly attention. The book features the research of international scholars, whose work addresses the representative history of small cities and urban networking in various parts of the Indian Ocean world in an era of change, allowing them the opportunity to compare approaches, methods, and sources in the hopes of discovering common features as well as notable differences. This volume is the result of a 2007 conference on "The Small City in Global Context," hosted by the Center for Middletown Studies at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, intended to expand the field of urban studies by encouraging scholars of diverse global interests and specializations to explore the history of non-metropolitan urban settings.

With the closure of the overland Silk Road in the fourteenth century following the collapse of the Mongol empire, the Indian Ocean provided the remaining vital link for wider cultural, political, and societal integrations prior to the Western colonial presence. Collectively, these studies explore the history of non-metropolitan urban settings c. 1400-1800 in the Indian Ocean realm, from the Ottoman Empire and the African coastline at the mouth of the Red Sea in the west to China in the east. This was an age of heightened international commercial exchange that pre-dated the European arrival, which in the Indian Ocean paired Islamic expansionism and political authority, and, alternately, in the case of mainland Southeast Asia, partnered Buddhism with new centralizing monarchies. While grounded in multi-disciplinary urban studies literature, the twelve studies in this collection explore secondary center networking, as this networking distinguishes secondary cities from metropolitan centers, which have traditionally received the most scholarly attention. The book features the research of international scholars, whose work addresses the representative history of small cities and urban networking in various parts of the Indian Ocean world in an era of change, allowing them the opportunity to compare approaches, methods, and sources in the hopes of discovering common features as well as notable differences. This volume is the result of a 2007 conference on 'The Small City in Global Context, ' hosted by the Center for Middletown Studies at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, intended to expand the field of urban studies by encouraging scholars of diverse global interests and specializations to explore the history of non-metropolitan urban settings.

THINKING CRITICALLY helps students become sophisticated thinkers by teaching the fundamental cognitive process that allows them to develop the higher-order thinking abilities needed for academic study and career success. The text compels students to use their intellect to think critically about subjects drawn from academic disciplines, contemporary issues, and their life experiences. The text begins with basic skills related to personal experience and then carefully progresses to the more sophisticated reasoning skills required for abstract, academic contexts. Each chapter provides an overview of an aspect of critical thinking, such as problem-solving, perception, and the nature of beliefs. Thinking Activities, thematic boxes, and writing assignments encourage active participation and prompt students to critically examine others' thinking, as well as their own. Thought-provoking and current readings from a wide variety of thinkers get students to think about complex issues from different perspectives. Each chapter ends with self-assessment activities that help students monitor their own progress as critical thinkers.