Stearns, et al.
©2006
ISBN: 0-321-33054-4
Soft cover

• This popular two-volume collection of primary sources from all areas of the world balances coverage of social and cultural history with political coverage.
• The documents illustrate characteristic features of key civilizations in the major stages of world history.
• The readers include visual documents, as well as print.
• Every section is followed by study questions to encourage critical thinking.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. EARLY CIVILIZATIONS

1. Mesopotamian Values: Ideas about the Nature of Life and Death.
The Gilgamesh Epic.

2. Babylonian Law: How an Early State Regulated Its Subjects.
Code of Hammurabi.

3. Egypt: Religious Culture and the Afterlife.
Book of the Dead.
Visual Source.

4. The Hebrew Bible.
Isaiah; Psalms; Exodus.

5. Herodotus and the Persian Empire.

6.Zoroastrianism: The Major Persian Religion.
Hymns of Zarathustra.

II. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD, 1000 B.C.E. TO 500 C.E.

China.

7. Key Chinese Values: Confucianism.
The Analects.

8. Legalism: An Alternative System.
Han Feizi.

9. Daoism.
Dao de Jing.

10.Women in Classical China: Ban Zhao.
Lessons for Women.
Visual Source.

11. The Role of the State in the Economy: The Salt and Iron Debates.
Discourses on Salt and Iron.
Visual Source.

Classical India.

12. "To Fight in a Righteous War": Varna and Moral Duty in India.
The Bhagavad Gita.
Visual Source.

13. What the Buddha Taught: The Four Noble Truths.
The Buddha's First Sermon.
Visual Source.

14. The State and the Economy in India: The Arthashastra.
Kautilya: Treatise on Material Gain.

15. Emperor Ashoka and "Right Conduct": The Doctrine of Dhamma.
Rock Edicts; Pillar Edict.

16. Gender Relations in India: Four Types of Evidence.
The Therigatha; Laws of Manu; The Mahabharata.
Visual Source.

Greece and Rome.

17. The Greek Political Tradition.
Plutarch on Sparta.

18. Athenian Democracy and Culture.
Pericles' Funeral Oration.

19. Mediterranean Social and Family Structure.
Aristotle, Politics and Economics.

20. Leadership in the RomanRepublic.
Plutarch and Cicero.

21. The Roman Military and the Empire.
Josephus.

22. Women and the Law in Rome.
Legal Codes.

23. The Fall of Rome.
Marcellinus and Rutilius Numantius.

Global Contacts and World Religions.

24. Global Contacts: The Rise of the Pastoral Nomads.
Sima Qian: silk statistics.

25. Global Contacts: The Opening of the Silk Road.
Chinese and Roman Sources.
Visual Source.

26. Monks and Monarchs: Buddhism Spreads to China, Korea, and Japan.
Fotudeng: A Biography; Lives of Eminent Korean Monks; the Nihongi;
Additional Japanese Documents.
Visual Source.

27. The Spread of Christianity.
Justin, Anonymous Documents.

III. THE POST-CLASSICAL PERIOD, 500–1500 C.E. : EXPANSIONS AND CONTACTS

The Islamic Middle East.

28. The Koran and the Family.
Koran.

29. The Islamic Religion.
The Hadith.

30. Religious and Political Organization in the Islamic Middle East.
Al-Mawardi: Ordinance of Government.
Visual Source.

China and Japan.

31. Peasant Life in Tang and Song China: Evidence from Poetry and Legal Documents.
Tang Poems by Dufu, Bo Zhuyi, Liu Zongyuan, Bi Rixiu; Loan Contracts;
Song Poems by Sushi, Zhengda, Yang Wanli.
Visual Source.

32. "The Noble and Magnificent City of Hangzhou": Marco Polo in China.
The Travels of Marco Polo.

33. Valor and Fair Treatment: The Rise of the Samurai.
The Tale of the Heike; Hojo Shigetoki.

Eastern Europe: Byzantium and Russia.

34. The Early Stages of the Byzantine Empire.
Procopius on Justinian.
Visual Source.

35. Russia Converts to Christianity.
Russian Primary Chronicle.

Western Europe.

36. Feudalism: Contemporary Descriptions and the Magna Carta.
Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres on Feudalism; Feudal Contract; the Magna Carta.

37. Medieval Theology: Anselm of Cantebury Blends Faith and Reason.
Monologion.
Visual Source.

38. Christine de Pizan: Women and Society in the late Middle Ages.
Christine de Pizan's Mirror of Honor.

39. Merchants and the Rise of Commerce.
The Gild Merchant of Southampton.

Africa.

40. East Africa and Arab Traders.
Buzurg ibn Shahriyar.

41. Al-Bakri on West Africa.

42. African Kingdoms and Islam.
Ibn Battuta.
Visual Source.

43. Africa Through the Eyes of a European Merchant.
Antonius Malfante.

The Americas.

44. Mayan and Aztec Creation Stories.
Popol Vuh and the Aztecs on the God Utzilopochtli.

45. Tribute under the Aztecs.
Oviedo y Valdes, Historia General y Natural de la Indias.
Visual Source.

46. The Andean Kingdom of Chuquito in 1567.
Waldeman Soriano Visita.

Forces of Change.

47. China "Discovers" Africa.
Tuan Ch'eng-shih and Ou-yang Hsiu.

48. Merchants and Trade: Sources and Comparisons.
Ibn Khaldun; Reginald of Durham on Saint Godric.

49. Global Contacts: Travelers to Holy Places.
Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian Pilgrims.
Sramana Huili on Xuanzang; Ibn Jubayr; al-Umari; Felix Fabri.
Visual Source.

50. Global Contacts: Sailing to Calicut.
Chinese and Portuguese Voyages.
Ma Huan; Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama.

51. The Crusades: Christian and Muslim Views.
Ekkeharsi; Count Stephen Bek-el-Oin; Vsamals Ibn-Mungidh.

The Mongols.

52. Chingis Khan and the Rise of the Mongols.
Juvaini;Russian Chronicles; Rashid al-Din; William of Rubruck.
Visual Source.

53. The Mongol Empire Takes Shape.
Asian and European Sources.

54. Mongol Rule in Russia.
Chronicles of Time.