Conversations of Modern World History: 50 Voices from 1400 to the Present

Featuring fifty primary source documents introduced within an historical narrative, Conversations of Modern World History: 50 Voices from 1400 to the Present offers readers an overview of the last six hundred years of the human experience. From the Chinese Ming dynasty to the emerging Russian Federation, students learn stories and perspectives of the past as told by those who lived them.

Both a textbook and a source reader, Conversations of Modern World History provides the historical and biographical contexts needed to understand and thoughtfully react to the conversation of history. A diverse group of men and women offer their perspective of various moments in history through their speeches, political statements, books, and journals. Each annotated document naturally leads to the next, helping readers understand that historical events were interconnected and that current discussions have roots going back hundreds of years.

Conversations of Modern World History combines the best of general narrative textbooks, short biographies, and primary source readers to help students see the interconnectedness of humanity past and present. It is an ideal text for world history survey courses from the 1400s onward.

Zachary Wingerd earned his Ph.D. in transatlantic history from the University of Texas, Arlington. He taught at Lon Morris College and the University of Texas, Tyler before joining the faculty at Baylor University. Dr. Wingerd has taught courses in world, American, Atlantic, Texas, and Latin American history, as well as historiography.