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| List of Illustrations | |
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| Preface | |
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| The Long Prologue: From 14 Billion Years Ago | |
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| Peopling the Planet: The Earth as a Global Frontier | |
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| A Little Big History | |
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| First Life on Earth | |
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| Three Explosions of Life | |
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| Changing Surfaces | |
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| Changes in Climate | |
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| Human Origins | |
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| Natural Selection | |
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| Hominids Stand Tall | |
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| Hominids to Humans | |
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| Culture Trumps Nature | |
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| Global Migration | |
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| Humans as Travelers | |
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| The First Modern Humans | |
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| Cave Paintings and Female Figurines | |
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| Cultural Adaptation | |
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| Human Differences: Race and Culture | |
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| Do Numbers Count? Patterns of Population Growth | |
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| Most of Human History: Foraging Societies | |
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| Lifestyles of Foragers | |
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| Sexual Division of Labor | |
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| Relative Social Equality | |
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| Leisure Time | |
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| Merging Old and New | |
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| Subduing the Earth: The Consequences of Domestication | |
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| The First Breakthrough: Origins of Agricultural/Pastoral Economies | |
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| Control over Food Supply | |
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| Why Agriculture Developed | |
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| Selecting Crops to Grow | |
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| Reducing Variety | |
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| Globalization and Continental Variety | |
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| Geography as Destiny | |
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| East-West Transmission Advantages | |
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| Agriculture and Language | |
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| The Long Agricultural Age: Places and Processes | |
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| Jericho | |
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| Catal Huyuk | |
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| Banpo | |
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| Ibo Culture | |
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| The Taino | |
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| Neolithic Continuity and Change | |
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| Changes in a Mexican Valley | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| The Brave New World of City, State, and Pasture: From 3000 BCE | |
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| The Urban Revolution: Causes and Consequences | |
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| The Epic of Gilamesh | |
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| The First Cities | |
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| The Urban Revolution | |
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| First-City Firsts | |
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| Origin of Cities in Plow and Irrigation | |
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| Middle East | |
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| East Asia | |
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| Americas | |
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| The Brave New World: Squares and Crowds | |
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| Tall Buildings and Monumental Architecture | |
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| Social Classes and Inequality | |
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| Officials and Scribes | |
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| Slaves and Servants | |
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| Farmers and Workers | |
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| New Systems of Control | |
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| Fathers and Kings | |
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| Religion and Queens | |
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| Law and the State | |
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| Hammurabi's Code | |
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| New Urban Classes in City-States and Territorial States | |
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| Merchants | |
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| Priests | |
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| Soldiers | |
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| New Country People | |
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| Change and "Civilization" | |
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| The Bias of "Civilization" | |
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| Achievements of Ancient Civilizations | |
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| Writing | |
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| Control and Change | |
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| Pasture and Empire | |
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| Nomads Put the Horse before the Cart | |
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| New Balance between City and Pasture | |
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| Nomads Conquer and Create Empires | |
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| States Regain Empires with Chariots | |
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| Empires and Collapse | |
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| Iron Age Eurasia | |
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| Iron versus Bronze | |
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| New Forms of Inclusiveness: Words and God for All | |
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| Iron as Metaphor | |
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| The Invention of the Alphabet | |
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| "T" Is for Trade | |
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| Monotheism | |
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| Gods at War | |
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| The Rivers of Babylon | |
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| Citizenship and Salvation: Leveling in Life and Death | |
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| The Cities of Babylon | |
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| The Persian Paradise | |
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| Imperial Size and Reach | |
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| Ships and Satrapies | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| The Legacy of Gilgamesh's Wall | |
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| The Promise of Pharaoh's Dream | |
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| Eurasian Classical Cultures and Empires: 600 BCE-200 CE | |
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| The Great Traditions of the Classical Age | |
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| The Classical Age | |
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| The Great Divergence | |
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| Interpreting Literature | |
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| Differences Not Permanent | |
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| The Ways of India and Greece | |
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| India | |
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| Vedic Civilization | |
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| Four Varnas | |
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| Karma and Reincarnation | |
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| Farmers and Jatis | |
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| Cities, States, and Buddhism | |
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| Mauryan Dynasty | |
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| Ashoka | |
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| Buddhism, Politics, and Commerce | |
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| Greece | |
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| The Hellenes | |
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| Clans into Citizens | |
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| The Polis and Greek Religion | |
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| Public Spaces and Public Dramas | |
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| Freedom and Law | |
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| Law and War between States | |
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| Laws of Nature | |
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| Athenian Democracy | |
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| Athens City Limits | |
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| The Worlds of Rome and China | |
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| Rome | |
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| Greco-Roman Society and Hellenism | |
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| Republic Not a Democracy | |
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| Armies, Lands, and Citizens | |
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| Praetors and Publicans | |
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| Cicero on Provincial Government | |
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| Civil War and Empire | |
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| Empire and Law | |
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| Administering the Roman Empire | |
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| No Bureaucracy | |
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| The Pax Romana | |
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| The Third Century | |
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| China | |
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| Similarities and Differences | |
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| Lineages, Cities, and States | |
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| Confucius | |
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| Legalism and the Unification of China | |
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| Qin Creates China | |
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| The Solution of Han | |
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| Empire and Dynastic Succession | |
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| The Mandate of Heaven | |
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| A Government of Experts | |
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| Salt and Iron | |
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| Palace, Consort Families, and Taxes | |
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| Strains of Empire | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| The Spread of New Ways in Eurasia: 200 CE-1000 CE | |
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| Cultural Encounters and Integration | |
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| The Silk Road | |
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| The Spread of Salvation Religions | |
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| Classical Collapse and Hard Times | |
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| Population Decline | |
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| Weather or Not? | |
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| Southernization | |
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| Southern Sanctuaries | |
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| Himalayas and Horses | |
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| Iran: Between Two Worlds | |
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| Iranian Society | |
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| Iranian Religions | |
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| India and Southeast Asia | |
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| The Kushan Prelude | |
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| Monsoon Winds | |
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| Malay Sails | |
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| Tropical Crops | |
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| Wet Rice | |
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| Gupta India | |
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| Hinduism in Southeast Asia | |
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| Buddhism beyond India | |
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| Mahayana Buddhism | |
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| Buddhism in Central Asia and China | |
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| The Way of the Way | |
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| The Uses of Magic | |
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| Monks, Missionaries, and Monarchs | |
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| Pilgrims and Writings | |
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| Temple and State | |
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| Christianity beyond Palestine | |
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| Hellenization | |
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| Paul versus Peter | |
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| Healing and Miracles | |
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| Jews and Christians | |
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| Conversion of the Roman Empire | |
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| The Eastern Roman Empire and Beyond | |
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| Soldiers and Emperors | |
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| The Tribes of Europe | |
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| Orthodoxy, Heresy, and Assimilation | |
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| Christianity in Europe and China | |
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| The Rise of Islam: The Making of a World Civilization | |
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| Salvation, Endings, and Beginnings | |
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| The Prophet: Trade and Religion | |
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| Islam beyond Arabia | |
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| Islamic Expansion to 750 | |
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| Islamic Expansion after 750 | |
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| The First World Civilization | |
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| Abbasid Baghdad | |
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| A Cultural Empire | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| The Making of an Afro-Eurasian Network: 1000 CE-1450 CE | |
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| China in the Making of an Afro-Eurasian Network | |
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| Industry and Invention | |
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| Textiles and Pottery | |
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| Paper and Printing | |
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| Compass and Ships | |
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| Guns and Gunpowder | |
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| Iron and Coal | |
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| Industrial Revolution? | |
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| Commerce and Capitalism | |
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| Money and Markets | |
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| Public versus Private Enterprise | |
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| Hangzhou | |
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| State and Bureaucracy | |
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| The Modern State | |
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| A Bureaucracy of Experts | |
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| Mongols in the Making of an Afro-Eurasian Network | |
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| The Mongols | |
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| Death and Destruction | |
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| Trade and Tolerance | |
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| Political Divisions and Economic Unity | |
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| World History for a Global Age | |
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| Ecological Unity: A Dark Victory | |
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| Islam in the Making of an Afro-Eurasian Network | |
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| New Muslims from the Steppe | |
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| Slaves, Soldiers, and Sons | |
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| In Place of Government | |
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| Muslims, Merchants, and Markets | |
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| A Merchant's Religion | |
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| Cairo | |
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| Islam in Africa | |
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| Islam in West Africa | |
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| Swahili Culture | |
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| A Single Ecozone | |
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| Islam in India and Indonesia | |
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| Europe in the Making of an Afro-Eurasian Network | |
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| Revival and Expansion | |
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| Good Weather and Good Luck | |
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| Two Europes, Four Economies | |
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| Cities and States | |
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| Urban Renewal | |
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| City-States and Citizenship | |
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| Law and Science | |
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| Natural Law and Natural Reason | |
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| Twelfth-Century Renaissance | |
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| Popular Science | |
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| The Formation of the Modern Network | |
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| Death and Rebirth | |
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| The Renaissance | |
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| The Classical and the Novel | |
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| Japan and Korea | |
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| Imitators and Innovators | |
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| Conclusion: The Virtues of Variety | |
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| Parallel Worlds of Inner Africa, the Americas, and Oceania: Before 1450 | |
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| The World of Inner Africa | |
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| Geography, Race, and Language | |
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| The World's Three Transformations in Africa | |
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| Humans, Farmers, and States | |
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| The Nile Connection | |
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| The Saharan Separation | |
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| The Bantu Migrations | |
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| Words, Seeds, and Iron | |
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| A Common Culture? | |
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| Empires, States, and Stateless Societies | |
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| Politics, Population, and Climate | |
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| Lots of Land | |
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| West Africa | |
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| Stateless Societies | |
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| Kingdoms for Horses | |
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| East and South Africa | |
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| Cattle and Colonization | |
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| Great Zimbabwe | |
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| Inner Africa and the World | |
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| The World of the Americas | |
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| States and Empires of Middle America | |
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| Before the Azetecs | |
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| Classical Mayan | |
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| A Theoretical Interlude: Priests and Soldiers | |
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| Toltecs and Aztecs | |
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| States and Empires of South America | |
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| Before the Incas | |
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| Classical Chavin | |
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| Moche Warrior Priests and Divine Emperors | |
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| Incas and Their Ancestors | |
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| States and Peoples of North America | |
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| Peoples and Places | |
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| Rich Pacific Fisheries | |
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| Pueblos of the Southwest | |
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| Eastern Woodland Farmers | |
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| Americas and the World | |
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| The World of the Pacific | |
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| Islands and Settlers | |
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| Islands | |
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| First Wave | |
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| Australia | |
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| Austronesian and Polynesian Migrations | |
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| Austronesian Migrations | |
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| Polynesian Migrations | |
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| Language and Culture | |
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| Ecology and Colonization | |
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| The Advantages of Parallel Worlds | |
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| The Lessons of Parallel Worlds | |
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| Lessons of Similarities | |
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| Similarities or Connections | |
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| Lessons of Differences | |
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| The Strength of Parallel Worlds | |
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| Index | |
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| About the Author | |