It will be immediately apparent to anyone familiar with the full-length or even so-called concise world history surveys currently on the market that this book stands alone: its interesting and recurrent themes—conceptual bridges that span the many centuries—give it a unique voice. Its format helps the reader see the larger picture, to conceptualize patterns over time by importing concepts from one unit to another. And while this book might not offer flashy four-color maps and illustrations, its price and length speak for themselves. Too often students are required to pay a great deal of money for books they have no hope of finishing, let alone comprehending or remembering much longer than a day after turning in the last exam. With decades of combined experience teaching World History—in community colleges and four-year institutions—our team of authors has witnessed firsthand the frustration instructors and students of world history experience with current survey textbooks. Deeming a new approach necessary, they have spent the last several years conceiving of and writing World History: A Concise Thematic Analysis. Whether you are new to the field of world history or have taught the subject for years, we think you will find this new approach both refreshing and effective, and that you will agree that a thematic analysis goes a long way toward making a complicated compendium of human numbers, economies, and cultures—the “one darn thing after another” phenomenon that gives World history a bad name—meaningful to student readers.