Douglas Northrop - A Companion to World History

This series provides sophisticated and authoritative overviews of the scholarship that has shaped our current understanding of the past. Defined by theme, period and/or region, each volume comprises between twenty-five and forty concise essays written by individual scholars within their area of specialization. The aim of each contribution is to synthesize the current state of scholarship from a variety of historical perspectives and to provide a statement on where the field is heading. The essays are written in a clear, provocative, and lively manner, designed for an international audience of scholars, students, and general readers.

WILEY-BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO EUROPEAN HISTORY

A Companion to Europe 19001945
Edited by Gordon Martel
A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Europe
Edited by Peter H. Wilson
A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Europe
Edited by Stefan Berger
A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance
Edited by Guido Ruggiero
A Companion to the Reformation World
Edited by R. Po-chia Hsia
A Companion to Europe Since 1945
Edited by Klaus Larres
A Companion to the Medieval World
Edited by Carol Lansing and Edward D. English

WILEY-BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO AMERICAN HISTORY

A Companion to the American Revolution
Edited by Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole
A Companion to 19th-Century America
Edited by William L. Barney
A Companion to the American South
Edited by John B. Boles
A Companion to American Indian History
Edited by Philip J. Deloria and Neal Salisbury
A Companion to American Womens History
Edited by Nancy A. Hewitt
A Companion to Post-1945 America
Edited by Jean-Christophe Agnew and Roy Rosenzweig
A Companion to the Vietnam War
Edited by Marilyn B. Young and Robert Buzzanco
A Companion to Colonial America
Edited by Daniel Vickers
A Companion to American Foreign Relations
Edited by Robert D. Schulzinger
A Companion to 20th-Century America
Edited by Stephen J. Whitfield
A Companion to the American West
Edited by William Deverell
A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction
Edited by Lacy K. Ford
A Companion to American Technology
Edited by Carroll Pursell
A Companion to African-American History
Edited by Alton Hornsby, Jr
A Companion to American Immigration
Edited by Reed Ueda
A Companion to American Cultural History
Edited by Karen Halttunen
A Companion to California History
Edited by William Deverell and David Igler
A Companion to American Military History
Edited by James Bradford
A Companion to Los Angeles
Edited by William Deverell and Greg Hise
A Companion to American Environmental History
Edited by Douglas Cazaux Sackman
A Companion to Benjamin Franklin
Edited by David Waldstreicher

WILEY-BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO WORLD HISTORY

A Companion to Western Historical Thought
Edited by Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza
A Companion to Gender History
Edited by Teresa A. Meade and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
A Companion to International History 19002001
Edited by Gordon Martel
A Companion to the History of the Middle East
Edited by Youssef M. Choueiri
A Companion to Japanese History
Edited by William M. Tsutsui
A Companion to Latin American History
Edited by Thomas Holloway
A Companion to Russian History
Edited by Abbott Gleason
A Companion to World War I
Edited by John Horne
A Companion to Mexican History and Culture
Edited by William H. Beezley
A Companion to Global Environmental History
Edited by J. R. McNeill and Erin Stewart Mauldin
A Companion to World History
Edited by Douglas Northrop

This edition first published 2012
2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd except chapter 20 2012 Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and Mr Benjamin Sacks

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A companion to world history / edited by Douglas Northrop.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4443-3418-0 (hardback)
1. HistoryMethodology. 2. HistoryStudy and teaching. 3. Historiography.
I. Northrop, Douglas Taylor.
D13.C628 2012
907.2dc23

2012009799

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Painting of the Battle of Adwa, 2 March 1896, by unknown Ethiopian artist, c. 19401949. Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum, London.
Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates

For Sawyer and Jeremy, every day a new world