Panorama, a World History: Volume 2: 1450 to the Present

How did the Columbian Exchange transform diets around the world? Why did expanding global trade hurt textile workers in India?In what circumstances did the COVID-19 virus become a global pandemic?

Panorama explores these questions by following the journey of humankind in a global context, weaving a world-scale narrative with a single chronological thread. It empowers you to connect the regional histories of particular states, empires, and cultural traditions to larger patterns of change on hemispheric and global scales-examining migratory movements, networks of trade, the spread of religions, pandemics, and environmental transformations.

Richly illustrated with 120 images and 50 maps, this new edition is organized into four chronological parts, each covering a defined era in world history. Volume 2 starts in the mid-fifteenth century CE and surveys up to the present day.

Each chapter includes dedicated learning features:

- ＂Individuals Matter＂ presents biographical sketches of individuals, both notable historical figures and ordinary people, whose lives in some way illuminate the chapter’s main developments.
- ＂Weighing the Evidence＂ asks you to analyse and interpret primary sources, either texts or visual artifacts.
- ＂Thinking about the Past with Global and Comparative Themes＂ encourages you to examine the threads of change that cut across global space and time.
- ＂Thinking History＂ questions help consolidate your knowledge, and ＂Reflecting on the Past＂ questions invite you to contemplate broader chapter themes.
- In-margin definitions of words and phrases help build key vocabulary.

With its unique global narrative, chronological storytelling and exceptional features, Panorama provides a clear framework to analyse and engage with the changes, continuities, and anomalies in our world’s past-and their impact on the present.

Ross Dunn is Professor Emeritus of History at San Diego State University, USA, where he taught African, Islamic, and world history. He was the first elected president of the World History Association, and he is a recipient of its Pioneers of World History award.

Urmi Engineer Willoughby is an Associate Professor of History at Pitzer College, USA. Her research focuses on histories of disease and medicine from a global and ecological perspective. Her first book, Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans (2017) was awarded the 2017 Williams Prize for the best book in Louisiana history.