Encounters in World History: Sources and Themes from the Global Past, Vol.1

History is an encounter with the past, and the past is a history of encounters. Encounters in World History is designed to introduce students to both of these sorts of encounters. Using primary and visual sources, the authors employ the encounter theme as a fundamental organizing principle. By nesting sources in thematically integrated chapters, comparison and analysis of sources can be more substantive, while also providing more internal structure for instructors. At the same time, this is a world history reader, and it follows a chronological format. The material has been presented in such a way that instructors can craft their own courses, emphasizing the aspects they think most important. Chapters are organized so that the general theme is presented in a chapter introduction and then revisited in the separate introductions to specific readings. The readers can be used to highlight preferred eras, cultural zones, or themes, or a unique mixture of all three.

Thomas Sanders received his doctorate in Russian history from Stanford University. He has taught at a variety of colleges and universities, including Stanford, Georgia Southern, the University of Dayton, Oberlin College, and since 1990 at the US Naval Academy. His most recent book is a collaborative translation and commentary entitled Against the Mountains: Qarakhi's Shining Swords and Tolstoy's Hadji Murat Depict Russian-Muslim Conflict in the Caucasus, (Routledge-Curzon, 2004). He has just begun a biography of the Soviet composer Vladimir Shainskii. He lives in Maryland with his wife, daughter, son, dog and rabbit.

Stephen Morillo grew up in New Orleans, then received his AB from Harvard and his DPhil from Oxford. After spending several years as a cartoonist, he has since taught at Loyola (New Orleans), the University of Georgia, and since 1989 at Wabash College, with a year at Hawai’i Pacific University as their NEH Distinguished Visiting Professor in 2003-04. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on various combinations of medieval, military and global history, and continues to draw cartoons and paint. He lives in Indiana with his wife, three children, and two cats.