This is part of a series of world history text reviews by Northeastern University graduate students

Nelson. Lynn (ed.), A Global Perspective, Source Readings from World Civilizations, 2 vols. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic, New York, 1989).

reviewed by Dimitris Kottaridis, Northeastern University dkottari@lynx.neu.edu

My main effort in reviewing those two volumes will be to present their strengths and weaknesses as teaching material in world history. I look for four major points in those volumes: sufficiency of information, clarity of presentation, ability to pursuade the reader (if this is the purpose of the author) and the ability of the combination to attract the student's interest.

Those two volumes are a collection of source readings on World Civilizations. I will be therefore critical of this collection, whether it serves its purpose as a World Historu textbook, whether it should be used as a teaching material or not. The readings focus on five major themes: Love, Death, The Good Life, War and Peace and Virtue and the Individual. According to the editor those are common concerns of all humanity and have been confronted and explored throughout human history by practically all civilizations.

There are sixty selections in both volumes grouped in chronological sections. The Ancient World from 3000B.C. to 300 A.D., The Middle Ages from 300 A.D. to 1200 and The Premodern Era up to 1600 are the chronological "categories" of the first volume. The second volume icludes selections on the Early Modern World: A.D. 1600 to 1789, Industrialism and Democracy: 1789 to 1914, and the last part deals with readings of the twentieth century.

Each part starts with an introduction that provides the reader with information of that era setting the background, emphasising the major political, economic and cultural events of that time. Every selection is prefaced by an essay supplying us with information about the author, his era and the significance of the work. The reading is preceded by a series of questions that serve as a guiding tool for the reader, emphasising the major themes and the key issues of the text. Each selection is followed by a bibliography of related works enabling the reader to further explore the issues raised.

One of the major assets of those two volumes is a series of discussion questions that follow at the end of each part. The student is able to go back to the readings and identify common patterns and beliefs, values and ideas that do exist in readings from aroud the world. Comparisons across time and among different cultures can be made and therefore create a "global" idea of history. Those questions promote my idea of world history, the concept of a constant search for connection and integration.

The author empasizes the "variety of exciting and significant expressions of the human spirit" and in that sence it could be used as a teaching material in world History. It fails, however to create a global feeling , a global perspective to the reader. The distinction, the line between europe, the west and the rest of the world is clear. Each chronological part contains ten selections, five from Western and five from non-western sources. The main chronological parts that the two volumes are separated deal mainly with Europe's dominance or events that took place as a result of the interaction with Europe. Although each of the five major themes is represented by one Western and one non-Western sources I still get the idea that the the world is being looked by european eyes, by the european perspective.

The editor does not argue at any point that this is a world history book. Although there are charts that point out the main events that take place in the world in specific eras, I do not get the sense of a complete world history book. The collection serves its purpose by supplying the material for the reader. There is no question that the student can indeed become analytical, explore and identify similarities and put together the big puzzle of history. However, a more extensive historical background, the use of maps, pictures and articrafts would be beneficiery. The author instead on focusing mainly on Western global hegemony in the second volume he could equally focus on historical developments in other civilizations and societies around the world.

There is no doubt that the reader can benefit from this collection. As in any collection of documents, the reader is able to approach the subject in more than one ways. We are able to connect the lifes of Mahatma Gandhi and Maria Teresa, we can compare the image of the American Indian culture before and after the advance of the Western culture or have a look at different approaches concerning personal morality and civic responsibility. Close look and comparison within western epic literature such as the Iliad and the Poem of the Gid, and non-western literature such as the Kanehira and the Bhagavad Gita, gives sufficient information on the way gods and heroes were portrayed.

I would recommend this book as a teaching material for students only as a supplement to a core text-book that would provide the necessary historical background, most probably a world history text-book. On the issues specified in this book the author supplies us with enough evidence of the way different cultures and civilizations viewed those themes. Although the reader is able to identify common patterns the luck of a sufficient historical background will probably confuse the students. The extended bibliography as suggested further readings though can be very beneficiery for someone who wishes to further explore any theme. This collection if used with a sufficient world-text book will definitely get the students closer to a global approach of history.