"The fifth revised edition was published in Great Britain as The new Penguin history of the world by Penguin Press/Allen Lane, 2012"--Title page verso
Includes bibliographical references and index
The foundations -- Homo sapiens -- The possibility of civilization -- Early civilized life -- Ancient Mesopotamia -- Ancient Egypt -- Intruders and invaders -- The beginnings of civilization in South Asia -- Ancient China -- The other worlds of the ancient past -- Transformations -- Remaking the old world -- The Greeks -- The Hellenistic world -- Rome -- Christianity and the western transition -- Classical India -- Classical China -- The central Eurasian crossroads -- Islam and the Arab empires -- Byzantium and its sphere -- The new Middle East and the making of Europe -- India -- Imperial China -- Japan -- Worlds apart -- Europe: the possibility of change -- New limits, new horizons -- Qing China and Mughal India -- A new kind of society: early modern Europe -- Authority and its challengers in Europe -- The new world of great powers -- Europe's assault on the world -- World history's new shape -- Ideas old and new -- Long-term change -- Political change in an age of revolution -- Political change: a new Europe - Political change: the Anglo-Saxon world -- The European world hegemony -- Imperialism and imperial rule -- Asian metamorphoses -- Strains in the system -- The era of the First World War -- The making of a new Asia -- The Ottoman heritage and the western Islamic lands -- The Second World War -- Decolonization and cold war -- Revolutions in science and perceptions -- The cold war world -- Crises and détente -- The closing of an era -- Openings and closures -- Whole world history