A Concise History of the Modern World

By investigating the major changes in world history during the past five hundred years, William Woodruff explains to what extent world forces have been responsible for shaping both the past and the present. This extraordinary book tells of the rise and fall of empires and civilizations; it recounts the growing communality and interdependence of nations; it shows how so many problems of the contemporary world are the legacy of an unprecedented era of western domination -- the end of which was hastened by the two world wars. In explaining how the world has come to be what it is, the author examines the implications surrounding the end of the cold war, the unraveling of communism in Eastern Europe, and the growing challenge of the non-western world to western superiority.