David W Del Testa – författare

Written in a lively, engaging style and designed to complement the high school social studies curriculum, this reference vividly recreates and analyzes pivotal encounters, exchanges, and conflicts between cultures and civilizations that profoundly influenced the course of human history. It covers all regions of the globe - Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and the Pacific - and all time periods and forms of encounters - from the early trade networks of the Fertile Crescent in 5,000 B.C.E to the spread of monotheism in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, through Columbus's arrival in the Americas, and up to the expansion of the World Wide Web. Each article details one encounter, highlighting the historical background of the civilizations or cultures involved; describing the exchange; and analyzing its social, political, economic, and cultural significance. Each entry includes a timeline; a map; primary source documents related to the exchange; a sidebar summarizing the proliferation of goods, practices, and ideas; bibliographic citations; black-and-white and four-color illustrations; and cross-references. Other features include a general introduction, glossary, and special indexes in each volume.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, leading America from a wheelchair; Genghis Khan, conquering Central Asia until he died in a riding accident; Nelson Mandela, teaching freedom through prison walls: this multicultural reference tool examines 200 leaders, rulers, and activists from around the world. The volume includes lesser-known, yet important, individuals such as Chin Shih Huang, the emperor who reunified China, and Hatshepsut, queen of ancient Egyptian dynasty. Detailed biographical essays place them in a broad historical context, illuminating their enduring impact on the common understanding, and fundamental themes, of human existence.