Bibliography
McNeill, J. R., and William H. McNeill. The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View
of World History, New York: W. W. Norton, 2003. A synoptic overview of
human history by two of the leading ¿ gures in world history. It takes as its
unifying theme the emergence and evolution of webs of exchange between
human communities.McNeill, William H., ed. Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History. 5 vols.
Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing, 2005. An invaluable reference work
for anyone interested in world history, with synoptic essays surveying
particular themes over the whole of human history.———. Plagues and Peoples. Oxford: Blackwell, 1977. A pioneering
account of the role of diseases and disease exchanges in world history.———. The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force and Society since
A.D. 1000. Oxford: Blackwell, 1982. A world history of the impact of
changing military technologies on state power in the early modern period.———. The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1963. Reprinted in 1991 with a retrospective
essay, “The Rise of the West after Twenty-¿ ve Years.” McNeill’s book
became an instant classic on its publication in 1963. Its balance of careful
scholarship, clear writing, and a powerful central argument about human
history proved the viability of serious scholarship in world history at a time
when many historians doubted that serious scholarship was possible on these
large scales.Miller, Walter M. A Canticle for Leibowitz. New York: Bantam, 1997. Was
¿ rst published in 1959. A nightmare vision of the future in which humans
destroy their civilizations as soon as they achieve the ability to do so.Mithen, Steven. After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000–5,000 BC.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. A vivid portrayal of life
in the late Paleolithic and early Neolithic eras based on reconstructions of
the lifeways of those who lived in this era, using evidence from some of the
major archaeological sites of this period.