World History

Ian Crofton, formerly editor-in-chief of The Guinness Encyclopedia, has written a number of works of popular narrative history, from Great Escapes and A Curious History of Food and Drink to The Little Book of Big History and World History: 50 Events You Really Need to Know. The last two bestsellers have been translated into many languages. Crofton has also explored the interplay of landscape, history and nature in more personal books such as Walking the Border: A Journey between Scotland and England ('Excellent', The Guardian), Fringed with Mud and Pearls: An English Island Odyssey (selected by The Telegraph as one of their top twenty travel books of 2021) and, most recently, Upland: A Journey through Time and the Hills ('A beautifully written celebration of a lifelong passion', Stephen Venables, author and mountaineer).

• Introduction. FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES: The beginnings of agriculture; The first cities; Egypt of the pharaohs; Classical Greece; Alexander the Great; The spread of Roman power; The fall of Rome and its aftermath; The rise of Islam; The Vikings; The Crusades; The Black Death. OTHER WORLDS: Precolonial India; Imperial China; The Mongols; Japan, the island empire; Incas and Aztecs; Empires and kingdoms of Africa. THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD: The Renaissance; The Ottoman empire; The voyages of discovery; The Reformation; The Counter-Reformation; The English Revolution; The Scientific Revolution; The age of empire; The Enlightenment. GATHERING PACE: The American Revolution; The French Revolution; The Napoleonic Era; The Industrial Revolution; Nationalism in Europe; Slavery; The expansion of the USA; The American Civil War; The rise of socialism; Women's rights. THE 20th CENTURY AND AFTER: The First World War; Lenin and Stalin; The shadow of Fascism; The Great Depression; The Second World War - Europe; The Second World War - Asia and the Pacific; The Holocaust; The Cold War; The end of empire; The Vietnam War; The Arab-Israeli conflict; The fall of communism; The resurgence of China; 9/11 and after. Index.