Presents the global past in a comprehensive, evenhanded,
and open-ended fashion
Patterns of
World History
with Sources
Fifth Edition
Peter von Sivers,
Charles A. Desnoyers,
George B. Stow, and
Kristen Geaman
About the Book
Encouraging a broad-based understanding of continuity, change, and innovation in human history, Patterns of World History presents the global past in a comprehensive, evenhanded, and open-ended fashion
Patterns of World History with Sources, Fifth Edition, offers a distinct framework for understanding the global past through the study of origins, interactions, and adaptations. The authors examine the full range of human ingenuity over time and space in a comprehensive, evenhanded, and critical fashion. They offer a distinct intellectual framework for the role of innovation and historical change through patterns of origins, interactions, and adaptations. Each chapter ends with four to six primary sources, both textual and visual.
Volume 1: To 1600 | 704 pp.
e-book: 978-0-19-777875-3
Oxford Insight: 978-0-19-777877-7
paper: 978-0-19-777874-6
Volume 2: From 1400 | 720 pp.
e-book: 978-0-19-777879-1
Oxford Insight: 978-0-19-777881-4
paper: 978-0-19-777878-4
About the Authors
Peter von Sivers is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Utah.
Charles A. Desnoyers is Professor Emeritus of History at La Salle University.
The late George B. Stow was Professor of History at La Salle University.
Kristen Geaman (contributor) is Senior Lecturer in the History Department at the University of Toledo.
New to This Edition
The fifth edition of Patterns of World History is available with Oxford Insight. Oxford Insight delivers the trusted and student-friendly content of Patterns of World History within a powerful, data-driven learning experience designed to increase student success. A guided and curated learning environment—delivered either via LMS/VLE integration or as a standalone resource—Oxford Insight provides access to the e-book, multimedia resources, assignable/gradable activities and exercises, and analytics on student achievement and progress.
New features include:
o Doing History on the Web: Demonstrating best practices in historical methodology, each Doing History on the Web activity provides a guided investigation of an important, authoritative website that historians use to do their own research. Examples include an exploration of the Slave Voyages database (Chapter 19) and comparisons of Indigenous and Spanish accounts of the Conquest from the online teaching and learning resource section provided by the American Historical Association (Chapter 18). Each Doing History on the Web includes short-response and multiple-choice questions.
o Closer Look Videos: These short (3–4 minute) videos provide in-depth examinations of visual sources, from photographs to paintings to propaganda posters. One per chapter, accompanied by short assessments.
o History in Practice: History in Practice engages students in the process of "doing history" via source analysis and synthesis. Its multi-step, inquiry-based approach guides students from the basics of understanding a source to creating informed examinations of the historical world.
Updated scholarship: All chapters have been revised and updated in accordance with recent developments and new scholarship.
The authors welcome Professor Kristen Geaman (University of Toledo) as a contributor to the fifth edition. Professor Geaman has advised the authors on all facets of the text, from coverage of important topics to issues of style related to diversity and equity.
Six new primary sources in the "Patterns of Evidence" sections in Volume One and four new primary sources in Volume Two.
Table of Contents
Volume 1: To 1600
World Period One: From Human Origins to Early Agricultural Centers, Prehistory to 600 BCE
1. The African Origins of Humanity, Prehistory–10,000 BCE
2. Agrarian-Urban Centers of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean, 11,5000–600 BCE
3. Shifting Agrarian Centers in India, 3000–600 BCE
4. Agrarian Centers and the Mandate of Heaven in Ancient China, 5000–481 BCE
5. Origins Apart: The Americas and Oceania, 16,000–600 BCE
World Period Two: The Age of Empires and Visionaries, 600 BCE to 600 CE
6. Chiefdoms and Early States in Africa and the Americas, 600 BCE–600 CE
7. Interaction and Adaptation in Western Eurasia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, 550 BC–E600 CE
8. Empires and Visionaries in India, 600 BCE–600 CE
9. China, Imperial Unification and Perfecting the Moral Order, 722 BCE–618 CE
World Period Three: The Formation of Religious Civilizations, 600–1450 CE
10. Islamic Civilization and Byzantium, 600–1300 CE
11. Innovation and Adaptation in the Western Christian World, 600–1450 CE
12. Contrasting Patterns in Eurasia, 600–1600 CE
13. Religious Civilizations Interacting, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, 550–1500 CE
14. Patterns of State Formation in Africa, 600–1450 CE
15. The Legacy of Teotihuacán and the Toltecs in Mesoamerica, 600–1550 CE
World Period Four: Interactions Across the Globe, 1450–1750
16. Western Christian Overseas Expansion and the Ottoman-Habsburg Struggle, 1450–1650
17. The Renaissance, New Sciences, and Religious Wars in Europe, 1450–1750
18. New Patterns in New Worlds, Colonialism and Indigenous Responses in the Americas, 1500–1800
Volume 2: From 1400
World Period Three: The Formation of Religious Civilizations, 600–1450 CE
15. The Rise of Empires in the Americas, 600–1550 CE
World Period Four: Interactions Across the Globe, 1450–1750
16. Western Christian Overseas Expansion and the Ottoman-Habsburg Struggle, 1450–1650
17. The Renaissance, New Sciences, and Religious Wars in Europe, 1450–1750
18. New Patterns in New Worlds, Colonialism and Indigenous Responses in the Americas, 1500–1800
19. African Kingdoms, the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the Origins of Black America, 1450–1800
20. The Mughal Empire, Muslim Rulers and Hindu Subjects, 1400–1750
21. Regulating the "Inner" and "Outer" Domains, China and Japan, 1500–1800
World Period Five: The Origins of Modernity, 1750–1900
22. Patterns of Nation-States and Culture in the Atlantic World, 1750–1871
23. Creoles and Caudillos, Latin America in the Nineteenth Century, 1790–1917
24. The Challenge of Modernity, East Asia, 1750–1900
25. Adaptation and Resistance, The Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1683–1908
26. Industrialization and Its Discontents, 1750–1914
27. The New Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century, 1750–1914
World Period Six: From Three Modernities to One
28. World Wars and Competing Visions of Modernity, 1900–1945
29. Reconstruction, Cold War, and Decolonization, 1945–1962
30. The End of the Cold War, Western Social Transformation, and the Developing World, 1963–1991
31. A Fragile Capitalist-Democratic World Order, 1991–2024
Digital Resources
Oxford Insight acts as a full course solution for you and your students. It pairs best-in-class OUP content (in the form of a full e-Book) with curated media resources, activities, and gradable assessments in a guided learning environment that delivers performance analytics, drives student engagement, and improves student outcomes.
Oxford Insight for Patterns of World History offers the following resources:
- Doing History on the Web
- Closer Look Videos
- History in Practice
- World Period Timeline Exercises
- BBC Videos
- Chapter Timeline Exercises
- Note Taking Guides
- Interactive Maps
- Interactive Concept Maps
- Enhanced Flashcards
- Matching Exercises
- Chapter Quizzes
- Video and Web Links
- End-of-Section Self-Assessments
- Primary Sources
- Uncovering World History
- Oxford First Source
- World History Video and Image Library
Additional Instructor Resources
Save time in course prep with valuable tools available for download on Oxford Learning Link, your central hub for a wealth of engaging digital learning tools and resources to help you get the most of your Oxford University Press course material:
- Atlas Maps
- Blank Maps
- Image and Map PowerPoints
- Lecture PowerPoints
- Instructor's Manual
- Test Bank
Praise for Patterns of World History
Patterns of World History in Oxford Insight is tailored well to today's students and their expectations and abilities: smaller digestible pieces with plenty of audio-visual resources and opportunities to check understanding. For instructors, the ability to choose what to assign, customize material, inclusion of learning objectives, and ideas for assignments are very appealing.”
–Emily Story, Salisbury University
Patterns of World History is a textbook that considers the connections between civilizations over a 400-year period and what makes history evolve."
–Catherine Porter, Hampton University
Patterns of World History is accessible and well thought out in terms of engaging students."
–Haimanti Roy, University of Dayton
Patterns of World History is a readable text with good supplements and images, is up to date in scholarship, and comes at a good price."
–Michael Frassetto, University of Delaware
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