The syllabus for HIS 101: World History to 1500 as taught at James Madison University.

This is the second edition of the open access textbook that arose out of a course at the University of California, San Diego, called HILD 10: East Asia: The Great Tradition. The course covers what have become two Chinas, Japan, and two Koreas from roughly 1200 BC to about AD 1200. As we say every Fall in HILD 10: “2400 years, three countries, ten weeks, no problem.” The book does not stand alone: the teacher should assign primary and secondary sources, study questions, dates to be memorized, etc. The maps mostly use the same template to enable students to compare them one to the next.

This textbook is intended to meet the curriculum requirements for St. Clair County Community College's HIS 101 course through the use of primary source content. Topics covered include ancient Greece, ancient Rome, the rise of Christianity, the Middle Ages, the emergence of Islam, and the Renaissance.

This video textbook started with the creation of 73 supplementary 10-20 minute video lectures for World Civilizations at Georgia Highlands College through a Round 10 Textbook Transformation Grant. A Round 14 Mini-Grant enabled the team to create guiding questions, key terms, transcript, and table of contents for each of the 73 videos, followed by a public website to share these newly-organized resources with students and faculty.

Topics include prehistory, the classical world system, trade, and the old world system, revolutions, imperialism and hegemony, the 20th century, and new global systems in the 21st century.

This is a remixed version of World History: Culture, States, and Societies to 1500 by Berger, et al. It's a textbook suitable for the World History survey. I have reorganized the text in order to provide a more globally integrated narrative. Each chapter invites students to compare and contrast developments across regions during a period of time.

This version of the book retains the text of the original but with updated references to chapters. I verified and, if necessary, updated links to online resources. In cases where the exact illustration used in the original version was not available, I have substituted equivalent ones. I also created and edited segues and other “connective tissue” as well to (hopefully) ensure that this version of the book reads as smoothly as the original.

Additional changes include:

More concise lists of “key terms” in each chapter
Expanded coverage of the Persian Empire
Expanded coverage of the end of the Yuan Dynasty
Added brief overview of the early Ming Dynasty including the voyages of Zheng He
Work on this adaption was generously sponsored by a grant from Michigan Colleges Online, a project of the Michigan Community College Association.

World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500 offers a comprehensive introduction to the history of humankind from prehistory to 1500. Authored by six USG faculty members with advance degrees in History, this textbook offers up-to-date original scholarship. It covers such cultures, states, and societies as Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel, Dynastic Egypt, India’s Classical Age, the Dynasties of China, Archaic Greece, the Roman Empire, Islam, Medieval Africa, the Americas, and the Khanates of Central Asia.

It includes 350 high-quality images and maps, chronologies, and learning questions to help guide student learning. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding their educational experience beyond the textbook. It provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making World History an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.

World History, Volume 1: to 1500 is designed to meet the scope and sequence of a world history course to 1500 offered at both two-year and four-year institutions. Suitable for both majors and non majors World History, Volume 1: to 1500 introduces students to a global perspective of history couched in an engaging narrative. Concepts and assessments help students think critically about the issues they encounter so they can broaden their perspective of global history. A special effort has been made to introduce and juxtapose people’s experiences of history for a rich and nuanced discussion. Primary source material represents the cultures being discussed from a firsthand perspective whenever possible. World History, Volume 1: to 1500 also includes the work of diverse and underrepresented scholars to ensure a full range of perspectives.