Upper Saddle River, NJ - August 7, 2006 -- Pearson Prentice Hall introduces an innovative new approach to teaching world history. The World: A History, by renowned scholar Felipe Fernández-Armesto, offers a unique, cohesive narrative telling the story of world history, from human beginnings to the present.

The World: A History breaks with the traditional, separate region by separate region approach of teaching world history to provide students with a deep understanding of the fundamental interrelationships - among people and their environments - on which the world is built.

"History is stories, so there are hundreds of tales in this book," said Fernández-Armesto. "I try to combine them in two all-encompassing, crisscrossing narratives. One is the story of how people link and part, as cultures take shape, exchange influences, and change each other. There is also the story of how humans interact with other species, the unstable environment, the dynamic planet. Students using The World: A History are like cosmic observers, gazing at the world from above and seeing it whole."

Today's graduates will be entering a truly global marketplace, and garnering a perspective on the world's connections, past, present, and future, is essential. The World: A History focuses on important linkages, comparisons, and parallels, helping students to understand the complex processes that have influenced global history, and encouraging them to think critically, not simply memorize facts.

"It comes close to being the Holy Grail for world history teachers," according to Patricia Seed, Professor of History, University of California, Irvine.

The book's features include Focus Questions, which open each chapter and encourage students to analyze while they read; A Closer Look, an in-depth visual analysis of a specific cultural artifact; Going To The Source, sections examining key problems in world history using visual and textual primary source documents; Making Connections, boxes offering visual summaries of important content; and In-Text Pronunciation Guides, phonetic spellings embedded directly in the narrative, enhancing students' ability to verbally discuss unfamiliar material.

To be published in August 2006, The World: A History received a rigorous and extensive development process. It was reviewed by more than 100 reviewers from a wide variety of institutions across the country and around the world, and class-tested by more than 1000 students at 15 academic institutions across the U.S., including San Diego Mesa Community College and Pennsylvania State University.

"I expect that it will become the world history textbook for this generation, and the standard by which subsequent books are measured," said David G. Rowley, Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

Enhancing the text are approximately 200 maps designed by Dorling Kindersley, one of the world's most respected cartographic publishers. These maps fall into three categories: thematic maps, often employing innovative perspectives; area maps, focused on interaction and change; and "spot" maps, pinpointing key places in the narrative.

About The Author

Felipe Fernández-Armesto is the Principe of Asturias chair of Spanish Civilization at Tufts University, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in global history, global environmental history, comparative colonial history, Spanish history, and topics in maritime civilization and the history of cartography. He also directs the Pearson Prentice Hall Seminar Series in Global History at Tufts, formerly held at the Institute of Historical Research in London. He is also a member of the faculty of history at Queen Mary College, University of London, and formerly was a member of the Faculty of Modern History of Oxford University, where he directed the Comparative Colonial History Project. The author, co-author, or editor of over twenty-five books, over forty major papers and chapters, and numerous scholarly articles, Armesto's work has been translated into twenty-two languages.

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