Big Idea Books



Most of these books cover large sweeps of history and interactions of cultures and ideas across geographical regions. Many present divergent points of view or new insights into history. As an example of the divergence of historical perspective read Andre Gunder Frank’s, ReOrient as an opposing bookend to David Landis and his Wealth and Poverty of Nations. The contrast is east and west and their respective historical developments. While all of these books are worth reading, there are too many listed to try to tackle at one time. If you are just beginning your quest into world history we have taken the liberty to indicate with an (*) some books that you might consider.

Janet L. Abu-Lughod. Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350. (Oxford University Press, 1989)

Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure of Man: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance. (Cornell University Press, 1989)

*Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. Millenium: A History of the Last Thousand Years. (Scribner, 1995)

Jerry Bentley. Old World Encounters: Cross Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times. (Oxford University Press, 1993)

Fernand Braudel. A History of Civilizations. (Penguin Press, 1993)

*Alfred W. Crosby. Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. (Cambridge, 1986) The Columbian Exchange. Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. (Greenwood Press, 1972); The Measure of Reality. (Cambridge University Press, 1997)

*Philip D. Curtin. Cross-Cultural Trade in World History. (Cambridge, 1984); Death by Migration. (Cambridge University Press, 1989)

*Jared Diamond. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies (Norton, 1997)

Jack Goody. The East in the West. (Cambridge University Press, 1996)

Johan Goudsblom. Fire and Civilization. (Penguin Press, 1992)

Andre Gunder Frank. ReORIENT. (University of California Press, 1998)

Daniel Headrick. The Tools of Empire: Technology and Imperialism in the 19th Century. (Oxford, 1981)

Marshall G.S. Hodgson. Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam, and World History. (Cambridge, 1993)

Samuel P. Huntington. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. (Simon and Schuster, 1996)

David S. Landes. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are so Rich and Some So Poor. (Norton, 1998)

William Mc Neill. The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community. (University of Chicago Press, 1963) ; The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000. (University of Chicago Press, 1982); Plagues and Peoples. (Anchor Press, 1989)

Sidney Mintz. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. (Penguin Books, 1985)

Arnold Pacey. Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History. (MIT Press, 1993)

Clive Pointing. A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of the Great Civilizations. (Penguin Books, 1991)

Edward Said. Orientalism. (Vintage Books, 1979)

Thomas Sowell. Migrations and Cultures: A World View. (Basic Books, 1996)

L.S. Stavrianos. A Global History. (Prentice Hall, 1983); Global Rift: The Third World Comes of Age. (William Morrow and Company, 1981); Lifelines from Our Past: A New World History. (Pantheon Books, 1989)

Peter Stearns. The Industrial Revolution in World History. (Westview Press, 1993)

John Thornton. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World(1400-1800). Cambridge University Press, 1992)

Immanuel Wallerstein. The Modern World System, Volumes I-III. (Academic Press, 1980)

*Eric R. Wolf. Europe and the People Without History. (University of California Press, 1982)