An unprecedented undertaking by academics reflecting an extraordinary vision of world history, this landmark multivolume encyclopedia focuses on specific themes of human development across cultures era by era, providing the most in-depth, expansive presentation available of the development of humanity from a global perspective. Well-known and widely respected historians worked together to create and guide the project in order to offer the most up-to-date visions available. * Contributions by a team of over 800 historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and other academics, focused on a world-based view of history, including well-known researchers as well as innovative newcomers who have made remarkable contributions. This multi-faceted approach offers a work that combines orthodox views with creative new perspectives * Twenty-one volumes covering the breadth of human history, in nine eras: Beginnings of Human Society; Early Civilizations, 4000-1000 BCE; Classical Traditions, 1000 BCE-300 CE; Expanding Regional Civilizations, 300-1000; Intensified Hemispheric Interactions, 1000-1500; The First Global Age, 1450-1770; The Age of Revolutions, 1750-1914; Crisis and Achievement, 1900-1945; Promises and Paradoxes, 1945-Present * General chronologies plotting large-scale changes in human organization, in areas such as population flow, technological development, and the evolution of social and political institutions * Hundreds of images and maps, plus charts and bibliographies * A wide range of primary source excerpts (some translated into English for the first time) giving students firsthand exposure to the raw materials of historical research