Global History (eBook)

Noel Cowen writes from long experience and observation, early on as a newspaper reporter, later as a civil servant in the Treasury working on problems of postwar reconstruction in a global context, and at the Ministry of Education seeking to develop the teaching of world history, and finally as an independent researcher, writer and speaker.

Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

The Classical Era.

Part I: The Primary Concern.

1. Global Odyssey: Searching for Subsistence.

2. Civilized Centres: Settlements Become Permanent.

3. Rulers and Myths; Preconditions of Stability.

Part II: The Political Prospect.

4. Hostile Encounters: The Threat from Outside:.

5. Communication Network: Paths to Co-existence.

6. Global Response: The Spreading of the Empires.

Part III: The Religious Factor.

7. Creeds of Empire: Conformity and Allegiance.

8. Crossing Frontiers: Faiths and Universalism.

9. Division and Decline: Propaganda for Salvation.

From Classical to Modern.

The Modern Era.

Part IV: New Beginnings.

10. Movements of Peoples: Nomads and New Settlers.

11. Economic Breakthrough: New Bases of Subsistence.

12. Church and State: Twin Pillars of Stability.

Part V: Wider Identities.

13. Centuries of Empire: Global Impulse Renewed.

14. Tools of Empire: Technology of Expansion.

15. Creeds of Empire: Ideologies on the Move.

Part VI: Global Tendencies.

16. The World Economy: From Crisis to Growth.

17. Hostile Encounters: Civilizations at War.

18. Communication Network: Search for Co-existence.

Conclusion.

Bibliography.

Index.

"This great little book is well-written, erudite and provides a
sweeping historical survey which anyone with an interest in world
history will find a very valuable introduction."

--Professor Anthony McGrew, Politics Department, Southampton
University

"This is a good contribution to theories of globalization,
bringing an important historical dimension to approaches that are
often ahistorical. The additional focus of civilizations rather
than nation-states is particularly interesting."

--Gerard Delanty, University of Liverpool, Network

"Noel Cowen's brave and brief text consciously imitates and
combines the broadest patterns suggested by McNeill, Wallerstein
and Braudel. His subject is not humanity but 'civilizations' that
developed significant surpluses beyond subsistence...Cowen predicts
an impending victory for financial imperialism, which has already
converted most of the world's elites into its gospel of economic
growth and higher living standards. If the human community can be
provided with a unifying history, it will not likely be built over
the sad skeleton of the history of tyrannies that Cowen's
conscientious account so clearly exposes." (Canadian Journal of
History, December 2004)