Exam Preparation

This book is considered the classic one-volume comprehensive history of the Russian Empire. It is used in most college-level survey courses.

This is an abridged version of the standard three-volume work on the history of the Byzantine Empire by one of the best historians in the field.

Cracking the AP World History Exam reviews world history topics and includes two full-length practice AP World History tests.

This two volume reader provides primary source documents covering the span of world history.

See also: Documents in World History, Volume II: The Modern Centuries, From 1500 to the Present

This book is a synthesis of major trends in world social history, covering the earliest civilizations through the twentieth century. Topics include gender, work and leisure, state and society, culture, contact, and population patterns. The book is particularly strong in its discussion of major changes and continuities across chronological periods.

A relatively brief historical atlas, designed primarily for quick reference work. It covers virtually the entirety of world history from the earliest civilizations to the present.

Braudel is one of the foremost “big picture” social historians in the world. This book covers the rise of the early civilizations (Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Egypt, Crete) through Greece and Rome, not from the standpoint of battles but in terms of the “ebb and flow of cultures.”

This book provides a solid overview of Mesoamerican civilizations in the area that would become Mexico, showing the links between cultures.

This author, one of the leaders in the comparative World History movement, takes on a broad historical overview of human migration from prehistoric times to the present, including forced and voluntary migrations.

This book is the standard college text on modern Latin America. It provides a thematic overview of the main issues confronting Latin America from independence onward, with particular emphasis on economic issues and social transformation.

This book examines major interactions between cultures from the classical era to 1492, including the ancient silk roads that linked China with the Roman Empire, the spread of world religions, and the Mongol Empire.

This two-volume textbook emphasizes the role of technology in shaping world history.

See also: The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History, Volume II : Since 1500

This is a chronologically organized reference volume of events in world history from prehistory to 2000. Content is divided into broad time periods. Within each time period, the material is subdivided by regional divisions within which individual countries or cultures are treated. The book includes maps and genealogical tables.

This is a well regarded narrative overview of French history from the 1770s until 1815, often used in college history courses.

This book xplains the main tenets of each of the world’s major faiths/belief systems: Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Accompanying each section are short passages from religious texts, illustrating the points made by the author, who is one of the world’s foremost authorities on comparative religion.

This book defines the industrial revolution and discusses its worldwide impact, including its social and economic effects.

This book is the standard text for semester-long college twentieth-century global history courses.

This book is a highly readable and thorough survey of global history from prehistory to the present. It is used by many Advanced Placement and introductory college World History courses around the country.

A brief edition which is a more concise version of the classic text, provides an overview of the cultures and interactions that have shaped world history from prehistory to the present.

This is the latest edition of one of the best world history textbooks, updated to include a series of tear-out workbook maps. This book is particularly good at drawing analytical comparisons between societies.