Peter Stearns is Distinguished University Professor of History at George Mason University. For several decades he has regularly taught world history and globalization courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. He has published titles in the Themes in World History series, on subjects including time, human rights, and happiness, with his latest release Punishment in World History.

• Part I: Context 1. Globalization and the Challenge to Historical Analysis 2. Emerging Patterns of Contact, 1200 BCE–1000 CE: A Preparatory Phrase Part II: Early Globalization, 1000–1450 CE 3. The Birth of Globalization? 4. Transition: The Mongol Period Part III: Protoglobalization 5. The Main Features of Protoglobalization, 1500–1750 6. A Late-18th-Century Transition Part IV: Modern Globalization, 1850–1945 7. The 1850s as Turning Point: The Birth of Modern Globalization 8. The Great Retreat, 1914–1945, and a New Transition Part V: Contemporary Globalization: The Most Recent Phase and Its Backlash 9. Contemporary Globalization since the 1940s: A New Global History? 10. A New Retreat? The Signs of Disruption in the 21st Century 11. Conclusion: The Historical Perspective

Peter Stearns is Distinguished University Professor of History at George Mason University. For several decades he has regularly taught world history and globalization courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. He has published titles in the Themes in World History series, on subjects including time, human rights, and happiness, with his latest release Punishment in World History.

• Part I: Context 1. Globalization and the Challenge to Historical Analysis 2. Emerging Patterns of Contact, 1200 BCE–1000 CE: A Preparatory Phrase Part II: Early Globalization, 1000–1450 CE 3. The Birth of Globalization? 4. Transition: The Mongol Period Part III: Protoglobalization 5. The Main Features of Protoglobalization, 1500–1750 6. A Late-18th-Century Transition Part IV: Modern Globalization, 1850–1945 7. The 1850s as Turning Point: The Birth of Modern Globalization 8. The Great Retreat, 1914–1945, and a New Transition Part V: Contemporary Globalization: The Most Recent Phase and Its Backlash 9. Contemporary Globalization since the 1940s: A New Global History? 10. A New Retreat? The Signs of Disruption in the 21st Century 11. Conclusion: The Historical Perspective