The earth and its peoples

[This edition] is a compact version of the complete fourth edition ... abbreviated to maintain the essential narrative ... balanced perspective on world history. The authors use their wide array of expertise to compare different times, places, and societies through two distinctive and fundamental global themes in the text: the interaction between human beings and their environment, and diversity and dominance. The text also gives special emphasis to technology and how technological development underlies all human activity--P. [4] of covers.