The World History Workbook: The Ancient World to 1500, Volume 1

This innovative and user-friendly two-volume workbook is designed to guide students and instructors through the ideas and methods of the growing field of world history. Useful as either a supplement or a core text, this hands-on book provides all the elements necessary to conduct a full-fledged world history course, including narrative, projects, primary sources, and a glossary of terms.

Using the guiding thematic argument that world history is the history of a single humanity, David Hertzel asks students to examine historical "universals" such as language and the unified heritage of languages, genealogy, myth, motifs and themes of literature, and archetypes. Rather than provide exhaustive coverage of each of these vast topics, the workbook provides judiciously selected historical examples as models from which instructors and students can open discussion suitable to the time and circumstance of the particular class. The projects guide students to recognize universals in their own lives and societies, allowing instructors and students to pursue historical themes in a critical and open environment. Despite the rigor of the comparative method and the extensive use of primary material, the workbook retains a simple but powerful theme and approach, making it accessible to students representing a wide range of educational and social backgrounds.