Amazon.com description: Product Description: Although this brief edition is two-thirds the length of its full-length counterpart, it retains coverage of all major themes and provides a truly global perspective on world history, without over-emphasising Europe or the U.S. "The Earth and Its Peoples" focuses on the interaction of human beings and the environment, using this central theme to compare different times, places and societies. Special emphasis is given to technology and how technological development underlies all human activity. Ideal for one-semester survey courses or courses where instructors want to supplement their textbook with many primary sources, this text has been carefully abbreviated to maintain the essential narrative of world history. Specific areas of improved coverage include the steam engine in Chapter 20, as well as the inclusion of recent events and developments throughout the world. Structural updates include the reorganisation of Chapters 2 and 3 and a new Chapter 11, "Mongol Eurasia and Its Aftermath," which combines the chapters on Western and Eastern Eurasia.