Contemporary World History

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Cengage Learning, Aug 31, 2009 - History - 384 pages
A comprehensive and balanced history of the world in the twentieth century and into the new millennium, William Duiker's text not only chronicles the key events in the revolutionary twentieth century, but also examines the underlying issues that have shaped the times. CONTEMPORARY WORLD HISTORY, 5E, takes a global approach to the subject while doing justice to the distinctive character of individual civilizations and regions. Duiker integrates political, economic, social, and cultural history, creating a chronologically ordered synthesis that gives students the true flavor of the most decisive moments in recent world history. In addition, Duiker's own photographs and selection of primary source documents, which illustrate much of the book, are especially effective in illustrating key points in the narrative. A new feature, Film & History, presents a brief analysis of the plot as well as the historical significance, value, and accuracy of eight films, including such movies as Khartoum (1966), Gandhi (1982), The Last Emperor (1987), and The Lives of Others (2006).
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About the author (2009)

William J. Duiker is liberal arts Professor Emeritus of East Asian studies at The Pennsylvania State University. A former U.S. diplomat with service in Taiwan, South Vietnam, and Washington, D.C., he received his doctorate in Far Eastern history from Georgetown University. At Penn State, he has written extensively on the history of Vietnam and modern China, including the highly acclaimed COMMUNIST ROAD TO POWER IN VIETNAM (revised edition, Westview Press, 1996), which was selected for a Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award in 1982minus;1983 and 1996minus;1997. Other books are CHINA AND VIETNAM: THE ROOTS OF CONFLICT (Berkeley, 1987), U.S. CONTAINMENT POLICY AND THE CONFLICT IN INDOCHINA (Stanford, 1995), SACRED WAR: NATIONALISM AND REVOLUTION IN A DIVIDED VIETNAM (McGraw-Hill, 1995), and HO CHI MINH (Hyperion, 2000), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. While his research specialization is in the field of nationalism and Asian revolutions, his intellectual interests are considerably more diverse. He has traveled widely and has taught courses on the history of communism and non-Western civilizations at Penn State, where he was awarded a Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the spring of 1996. In 2002 the College of Liberal Arts honored him with an Emeritus Distinction Award.

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