Twentieth-Century World History

Duiker's comprehensive, balanced history of the world in the twentieth century provides you with context for interpreting the events that you hear about in the news each day. You'll view history from the broader global perspective, while at the same time gaining insight into the distinctive character of individual civilizations and regions. And to ensure that you'll have a well-rounded understanding of the most decisive moments in recent times, Duiker integrates political, economic, social, and cultural history into a smoothly written narrative. What's more, the text includes a special insert that guides you in using the text's many detailed maps, which help you make important connections between geography and the turn of historic events; timelines that highlight and contrast different cultures and nations, thus giving you an "at-a-glance," holistic perspective on eras and their defining events; photos from William Duiker's own collection that giving you a closer, more personal look at the world we live in; and primary-source documents that illustrate and clarify key points.

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 in 1968, where his dissertation dealt with the Chinese educator and reformer Cai Yuanpei. At Penn State, he has written widely on the history of Vietnam and modern China, including the widely acclaimed THE COMMUNIST ROAD TO POWER IN VIETNAM (Revised Edition, Westview Press, 1996), which was selected for a Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award in 1982-1983 and 1996-1997. Other recent books include CHINA AND VIETNAM: THE ROOTS OF CONFLICT (Berkeley, 1987), 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.