The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Environmental Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Century

Renting vs. Buying This Textbook

Renting is usually cheapest if you only need the book for one term: you return it with a free prepaid label when the term ends. Buying used can beat renting when the sell-back price is high, so compare the sell-back price with the rental price before you decide. An eTextbook arrives instantly but usually expires. Rentals and used copies rarely include working access codes.

Always match the ISBN on your syllabus (9781442212404) before you order; different editions have different ISBNs.

About This Book

"This clearly written and engrossing book presents a global narrative of the origins of the modern world from 1400 to the present. Unlike most studies, which assume that the "rise of the West" is the story of the coming of the modern world, this history, drawing upon new scholarship on Asia, Africa, and the New World and upon the maturing field of environmental history, constructs a story in which those parts of the world play major roles, including their impacts on the environment. Robert B. Marks defines the modern world as one marked by industry, the nation state, interstate warfare, a large and growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest parts of the world, increasing inequality within the wealthiest industrialized countries, and an escape from the environmental constraints of the "biological old regime." He explains its origins by emphasizing contingencies (such as the conquest…