The world (2nd ed )

The Worldinterweaves two stories-of our interactions with nature and with each other. The environment-centered story is about humans distancing themselves from the rest of nature and searching for a relationship that strikes a balance between constructive and destructive exploitation. The culture-centered story is of how human cultures have become mutually influential and yet mutually differentiating. Both stories have been going on for thousands of years. We do not know whether they will end in triumph or disaster.

There is no prospect of covering all of world history in one book. Rather, the fabric of this book is woven from selected strands. Readers will see these at every turn, twisted together into yarn, stretched into stories. Human-focused historical ecology-the environmental theme-will drive readers back, again and again, to the same concepts: sustenance, shelter, disease, energy, technology, art. (The last is a vital category for historians, not only because it is part of our interface with the rest of the world, but also because it forms a record of how we see reality and of how the way we see it changes.) In the global story of human interactions-the cultural theme-we return constantly to the ways people make contact with each another: migration, trade, war, imperialism, pilgrimage, gift exchange, diplomacy, travel-and to their social frameworks: the economic and political arenas, the human groups and groupings, the states and civilizations, the sexes and generations, the classes and clusters of identity.

Part 5: Contact and Conflicts, 1000 CE to 1200 CE

Chapter 11

Contending with Isolation: ca. 1000-1200

Around the Indian Ocean: Ethiopia, the Khmer, and India

• East Africa: The Ethiopian Empire
• Southeast Asia: The Khmer Kingdom
• India: Economy and Culture
• India: The Chola Kingdom

Eurasia's Extremities: Japan and Western Europe

• Japan
• Western Europe: Economics and Politics
• Western Europe: Religion and Culture

In Perspective: The Patchwork of Effects

Chapter 12

The Nomadic Frontiers: The Islamic World, Byzantium, and China, ca. 1000-1200

The Islamic World and Its Neighbors

• The Coming of the Steppelanders
• The Crusades
• The Invaders from the Sahara
• The Progress of Sufism

The Byzantine Empire and Its Neighbors

• Byzantium and the Barbarians
• Basil II
• The Era of Difficulties
• Byzantium and the Crusaders
• Byzantine Art and Learning

Chinaand the Northern Barbarians

• The End of the Tang Dynasty
• The Rise of the Song and the Barbarian Conquests
• Economy and Society Under the Song
• Song Art and Learning

In Perspective: Cains and Abels

PART 6: the crucible: the eurasian crises of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries

Chapter 13

The World the Mongols Made

The Mongols: Reshaping Eurasia

• Genghis Khan
• The Mongol Steppe

The Mongol World Beyond the Steppes: The Silk Roads, China, Persia, and Russia

• China
• Persia
• Russia

The Limits of Conquest: Mamluk Egypt and Muslim India

• Mamluk Egypt
• Muslim India: The Delhi Sultanate

Europe

In Perspective: The Uniqueness of the Mongols

Chapter 14

The Revenge of Nature: Plague, Cold, and the Limits of Disaster in the Fourteenth Century

Climate Change

The Coming of the Age of Plague

• The Course and Impact of Plague
• Medicine and Morals
• The Jews
• Distribution of Wealth
• Peasant Millenarianism

The Limits of Disaster: Beyond the Plague Zone

• India
• Southeast Asia
• Japan
• Mali

The Pacific: Societies of Isolation

• Easter Island
• New Zealand
• Ozette
• Chan Chan

In Perspective: The Aftershock

Chapter 15

Expanding Worlds: Recovery in the Late Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

Fragile Empires in Africa

• East Africa
• West Africa

Ecological Imperialism in the Americas

• The Inca Empire
• The Aztec Empire

New Eurasian Empires

• The Russia Empire
• Timurids and the Ottoman Empire

The Limitations of Chinese Imperialism

The Beginnings of Oceanic I