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Making Sense of World History 1st Edition

by Rick Szostak (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 258 ratings
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Making Sense of World History is a comprehensive and accessible textbook that helps students understand the key themes of world history within a chronological framework stretching from ancient times to the present day.

To lend coherence to its narrative, the book employs a set of organizing devices that connect times, places, and/or themes. This narrative is supported by:

  • Flowcharts that show how phenomena within diverse broad themes interact in generating key processes and events in world history.
  • A discussion of the common challenges faced by different types of agent, including rulers, merchants, farmers, and parents, and a comparison of how these challenges were addressed in different times and places.
  • An exhaustive and balanced treatment of themes such as culture, politics, and economy, with an emphasis on interaction.
  • Explicit attention to skill acquisition in organizing information, cultural sensitivity, comparison, visual literacy, integration, interrogating primary sources, and critical thinking.
  • A focus on historical “episodes” that are carefully related to each other.

Through the use of such devices, the book shows the cumulative effect of thematic interactions through time, communicates the many ways in which societies have influenced each other through history, and allows us to compare and contrast how they have reacted to similar challenges. They also allow the reader to transcend historical controversies and can be used to stimulate class discussions and guide student assignments.

With a unified authorial voice and offering a narrative from the ancient to the present, this is the go-to textbook for World History courses and students.

The Open Access version of this book has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

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  1. ISBN-10
    0367820897
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0367820893
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Routledge
  5. Publication date
    October 23, 2020
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6.75 x 3 x 9.5 inches
  8. Print length
    1424 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rick Szostak is a professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author of eighteen books and sixty journal articles spanning the fields of world history, economic history, history of technology, methodology, interdisciplinary studies, and knowledge organization.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (October 23, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 1424 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0367820897
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0367820893
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.52 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 3 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 258 ratings

About the author

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Rick Szostak

Rick Szostak

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Rick Szostak joined the Department of Economics at the University of Alberta in 1985. His B.A. is from McGill and his PhD from Northwestern University. Szostak's research interests span the fields of economic history, methodology, history of technology, ethics, study of science, information science, world history, future studies, and especially the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity. One theme common to much of his research is the importance of complex webs of causality. He served on the Board of the Association for Integrative Studies for most of a decade, and was President 2011-3. He was President of the International Society for Knowledge Organization from 2018 to 2022. He has served on the governing councils of the interdisciplinary programs in Humanities Computing, Science Technology and Society, and Religious Studies at the University of Alberta. He has spent sabbatical leaves at the University of New South Wales and European University Institute in Florence. In 2007, he taught at the University of Alberta Faculty of Arts study-abroad program in Cortona, Italy. He has taught short courses for the College of Europe in Warsaw on both interdisciplinarity and future studies since 2020. He is the author of 20 books and over 50 journal articles, plus dozens of encyclopedia articles and book chapters. His current research agenda is described on his web page, Department of Economics, University of Alberta.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
258 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

F. J. Willey
4.0 out of 5 stars Dot for the WOKE
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2021
Verified Purchase
Telling of the past the way it was, not the way this next generation imagined they can make it.
7 people found this helpful
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E. M. Brooks
1.0 out of 5 stars In a word, horrible!!!
Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2021
Verified Purchase
I have never read an author of history worse. The first 40 pages are telling the reader what you will read, how you should read it, and why you really can’t comprehend world history as taught by anyone else. It goes downhill from there. A good editor should have caught the multiple ‘as we said in the last chapter’ or ‘as previously stated.’ The royal We is used everywhere. It is condescending and overblown. The author spends pages on The Big Bang after explaining ‘we’ (I am unsure if he means the reader or humankind) just can’t comprehend what happened. But he pulls some lovely graphics from NASA exploring it nonetheless. After almost 100 pages, I quit. I try very hard to give any author at least 1/3 of a book to get his kinks straightened out but this was not worth the brain cells I was frying.

Btw, before anyone tries to defend this mess, my degrees were in History and English. And while it has been many years since grad school - if any professor I took had tried to pass this pile of dog ****** off as a text book, the students would have left in mass after just attempting to read the prelude.

Poor writing, way too wordy and rather unsure of the subject. Not worth your time. But the graphs are excellent. Lol.
35 people found this helpful
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Willcsor
2.0 out of 5 stars In a word, horrible!!
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2021
Verified Purchase
I have never read an author of history worse. The first 40 pages are telling the reader what you will read, how you should read it, and why you really can’t comprehend world history as taught by anyone else. Give a 2 for trying.
8 people found this helpful
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Bonieta Gentil
1.0 out of 5 stars Dull as dishwater/
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2020
Verified Purchase
While it is factual, the tortured syntax would turn any student away from taking history again. Pedantic to say the least.
28 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Customer Ontario
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written
Reviewed in Canada on November 22, 2023
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S.Martin
4.0 out of 5 stars 40 pages... what???
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2023
Verified Purchase
So I've just got this Kindle version for free and wanted to see what all the negativity was about. Firstly, I would agree that this book is not the most exciting read (and probably wasn't meant to be). I read a random 10 pages (Industrial Revolution) and found it to be relatively informative (although it is done in a point-of-view style).

However, the multiple reviewers who believe the first 40 pages (actually 36) are telling you why this book is better than everything else are (at least) slightly exaggerating. The introduction explains how the book is laid out ('helpful' boxes) and tries to explain what the user will get. Any statement about this book being better than others is anecdotal and I couldn't find it by going through the pages.

I would suggest that if you're offended by the introduction, skip it (you're not going to miss anything). I've included a sample attached which will help you decide how poor the writing is. It's dry (because history generally is) but legible.

Note: Don't trust a review where their first sentence doesn't make sense. Worse still, don't trust the 2nd review that copies the first. As for the assertion by a reviewer that the author doesn't know how the Big Bang happened, well I'd like to know the universally-agreed answer too (as there isn't one just yet and that's what he's telling you). Also note that this isn't a defense of the book (it's no Bill Bryson); I just believe it's nowhere near as bad as is suggested.
Customer image
S.Martin
4.0 out of 5 stars 40 pages... what???
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2023
So I've just got this Kindle version for free and wanted to see what all the negativity was about. Firstly, I would agree that this book is not the most exciting read (and probably wasn't meant to be). I read a random 10 pages (Industrial Revolution) and found it to be relatively informative (although it is done in a point-of-view style).

However, the multiple reviewers who believe the first 40 pages (actually 36) are telling you why this book is better than everything else are (at least) slightly exaggerating. The introduction explains how the book is laid out ('helpful' boxes) and tries to explain what the user will get. Any statement about this book being better than others is anecdotal and I couldn't find it by going through the pages.

I would suggest that if you're offended by the introduction, skip it (you're not going to miss anything). I've included a sample attached which will help you decide how poor the writing is. It's dry (because history generally is) but legible.

Note: Don't trust a review where their first sentence doesn't make sense. Worse still, don't trust the 2nd review that copies the first. As for the assertion by a reviewer that the author doesn't know how the Big Bang happened, well I'd like to know the universally-agreed answer too (as there isn't one just yet and that's what he's telling you). Also note that this isn't a defense of the book (it's no Bill Bryson); I just believe it's nowhere near as bad as is suggested.
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