For their response to the ideas in the book and the book itself, I want to acknowledge the first- and second-year students who have taken History 101, Introduction to World History, and read and commented on prior editions of Origins
It's nice to see that students similar to myself were able to give their feedback, and have that feedback addressed in later editions.
In addition to the intellectual debt I owe to Andre Gunder Frank, Kenneth Pomeranz, and John R. McNeill, I want to thank them for their personal involvement with the first edition of this book.
The majority of this reading after this point is the author, Robert B. Marks, thanking and giving credit to his colleges and organizations that helped or funded this fifth edition and older editions of this book.
the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing great recession
I always wondered why schools never really talked about the great recession. Was it too recent? If so, when do major historical events start being put into general education?
It hasn’t taken a century, but just a few years, for the importance of the change in our relationship to the environment to thrust itself to the forefront of our understanding of the recent past, and to give the epoch in Earth history we are now in a new name—the Anthropocene.
I also found it interesting how fast our focus on past events can change.