John Coatsworth is Professor of History and Provost of Columbia University and former Dean of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. He is author, editor or co-editor of nine books on Latin American economic and international history, including The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America (2006) and Living Standards in Latin American History (2010). He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in comparative and Latin American history at Columbia since 2006. He previously served at Harvard University and the University of Chicago. Other academic posts have included visiting professorships at El Colegio de México, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the National University of Buenos Aires, the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires, and the Instituto Ortega y Gassett in Madrid. He is past president of the American Historical Association, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Introduction
Part I. 5000-600 BCE: The Rise of Cities, States and Pastoralism: 1. From human origins to the farming transformation
2. Cities and states
3. People on the move
Part II. 600 BCE-600 CE: A World of Regions: 4. Africa and the Americas: making history in challenging environments
5. East, Central and South Asia: the religious foundations of empires
6. The Ancient Mediterranean
Part III. 600-900 CE: States, Empires, and Religions: 7. The Middle East and Europe
8. The heyday of the Silk Road
9. The rise and fall of states in the Americas and Africa, 600-1200 CE
Part IV. 900-1200 CE: Fragmentation, Feudalism, and Urbanization: 10. Europe and the Muslim World
11. Paradoxes of plenty in Song China, Byzantium, and Kievan Russia
Part V. 1200-1500 CE: Conquest and Commerce: 12. The Americas and Africa
13. The Mongol Conquests and their legacies
14. Europe and the world.
