About This Textbook

This is an assembled OER textbook for a course covering the history of many parts of the world from earliest human beginnings to roughly 500 C.E. The content includes OER chapters available from other textbooks as well as primary source documents available online. The HIST& 126 course in Washington State is usually taught in a quarter system (roughly 10 weeks per course instead of the usual 15 for a semester course.) Although listed officially as part of a “World Civilizations” sequence, it is not limited to societies traditionally referred to as “civilizations.” This book’s title represents a more comprehensive approach to humanity’s past. The endpoint of 500 C.E. is only a rough dividing line; some of the material extends into the end of the first millenium C.E.

World History to 500 C.E. is the first in an projected three-part World History series of Pressbooks, each corresponding to one of the three courses in the Seattle Colleges District World Civilizations sequence. The second book will cover World History from 500 to 1750, and the third will over World History 1750 to the Present. The first chapter, the “Introduction to (World) History” will be more or less the same in each of the three books.

Parts of the Book

The Introduction is intended to be a general introduction to History as an academic subject, with particular attention to World History as a subfield. It is not specifically designed as an introduction to the history of the ancient world.

The main content “parts” or are arranged roughly chronologically. Each of the parts consists of two chapters:

1) Secondary or Tertiary Source Readings. In most cases, this means a brief survey of a World History subfield, usually defined by place and time (“ancient China,” for example). In most cases, this chapter is cloned or adapted from one or more pre-existing OER (Open Educational Resource) World History, Western Civilization, or Art History textbooks. Each chapter is organized in a combination of narrative and thematic approches. These composite chapters are sometimes longer or more detailed than other World History textbooks, so instructors may want to assign portions of them rather than all of them. These chapters often have embedded links to primary sources and other related materials.

2) Primary Source Readings. In most cases, this takes the form of a list of websites fully open to the public. In almost all cases, these are academic or other non-commercial sites, although in some rare cases the best version can only be found on a commercial site. Any site that may include commercial advertising is identified with a “contains ads” or “may contain ads” label. None of the primary source chapters is anything close to a comprehensive list of primary sources related to the subject matter. The ones listed are chosen to be broadly representative of some key issues or questions mentioned in the narrative chapter. They have also been chosen with length and readability in mind — epic-sized works such as the Mahabarata or The Analects have been excerpted and/or edited for length. Another main goal in selecting these sources is to provide “meaty” primary sources that students could use for brief, analytical writing assignments.