World History Volume 1, to 1500

OpenStax is part of Rice University, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable corporation. Our mission is to make an amazing education accessible for all. Through our partnerships with philanthropic organizations and our alliance with other educational resource companies, we’re breaking down the most common barriers to learning. Because we believe that everyone should and can have access to knowledge.

World History is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY NC-SA) license, which means that you can non-commercially distribute, remix, and build upon the content, as long as you provide attribution to OpenStax and its content contributors, and distribute all derivatives under the same license.

Because our books are openly licensed, you are free to use the entire book or select only the sections that are most relevant to the needs of your course. Feel free to remix the content by assigning your students certain chapters and sections in your syllabus, in the order that you prefer. You can even provide a direct link in your syllabus to the sections in the web view of your book.

Instructors also have the option of creating a customized version of their OpenStax book. The custom version can be made available to students in low-cost print or digital form through their campus bookstore. Visit the Instructor Resources section of your book page on OpenStax.org for more information.

In World History, art contains attribution to its title, creator or rights holder, host platform, and license within the caption. For any art that is openly licensed, non-commercial users or organizations may reuse the art as long as they provide the same attribution to its original source. (Commercial entities should contact OpenStax to discuss reuse rights and permissions.) To maximize readability and content flow, some art does not include attribution in the text. If you reuse art from this text that does not have attribution provided, use the following attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY NC-SA 4.0 license.

All OpenStax textbooks undergo a rigorous review process. However, like any professional-grade textbook, errors sometimes occur. Since our books are web-based, we can make updates periodically when deemed pedagogically necessary. If you have a correction to suggest, submit it through the link on your book page on OpenStax.org. Subject matter experts review all errata suggestions. OpenStax is committed to remaining transparent about all updates, so you will also find a list of past and pending errata changes on your book page on OpenStax.org.

You can access this textbook for free in web view or PDF through OpenStax.org, and for a low cost in print.

World History is designed to support both semesters of the world history course offered at both two-year and four-year institutions. Serving a student base of both majors and non-majors in the field, as well as an institutional variation in requirements of one or two semesters depending on the plan of study, the course introduces students to a global perspective of history conveyed within an engaging narrative. Concepts and assessments are presented in ways to help students think critically about the issues they encounter so they can broaden their perspective of global history and how the topics studied apply to their current life as citizens of the world.

The text shows how historical content and the ways in which history is studied are relevant to modern-day needs and situations. The narrative shows readers the why of historical events and people, providing context and import to engage students. A primary goal of the book is to include content, scholarship, and activities that explore a variety of perspectives, including those traditionally underrepresented in this canon.