Peter N. Stearns

So much has been written about globalization, but historians have only recently begun to study the phenomenon. Usually, their focus is on the question when exactly this globalization started, and whether or not this is the first time that a global network was created. Peter Stearns gives a creditable overview and offers his own accents. Only at the end does this book water down a bit, because he wants to stay too close to current events. More in my History account on Goodreads: rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1915173202… (més)

A rather hybrid book: it is both about the catch-all concept of 'Western civilization' and about the Western Civ course that has been taught in the US at college level since the 1920s. Stearns outlines how that approach came about and how it evolved and partly eroded. He rightly argues in favor of incorporating the new insights gained in the context of the World History/Global History movement. And he makes an effort to recalibrate the approach. I think Stearns did a creditable effort, but at the same time rather half-heartedly, because in the second half the book gets bogged down in an ordinary history course. More in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3088807730… (més)

5748. The European Experience Since 1815, by Peter N. Stearns (read 23 Jun 2021) This book, published in 1972, is a textbook-like account of developments in Europe since 1815, which I wish I had read in 1973 and which I wish extended its discussion to the present since I would be very interested in what the author would say about the developments in the last 50 years. The book surveys events from the Congress of Vienna to the largely abortive revolutions of 1848, and the events till the Great War, .and the many changes in Europe due to that war, the between the wars developments, and how much wiser way that Germany was handled after World War II, and the Cold War which is still ongoing when the book ends. It is marvelous that we can revel in the fact that Europe has been substantially at peace in the 50 years that the book does not cover, and though we have plenty of problems today most are not due to what was done in Europe since World War Two.… (més)