Twentieth-Century World History 3rd Edition

“From the beginning it is clear that Professor Duiker sees the world as a “global village” as he says in the Preface. He integrates this theme intelligently and consistently. “Reflections” is an excellent means for placing the material of the chapter in a context and drawing it all together in a summary.” “One of the reasons why I and others chose this text was its clearness which makes it student friendly. This is consistent throughout the text. The author has the ability to synthesize complex historical developments into readable, short narratives that are rich in information and analysis.”

“Let me say first that this is the best text on the 20th century that I have read or reviewed. This author has hit just the right level and tone for most undergraduate students in a history survey course. His writing style is active and succinct. He offers just the right amount of information so that each event or trend is clear but he does not overwhelm the reader with detail (there are other sources if instructors need more background). Moreover, his laying out of different perspectives (Soviet and American in the Cold War, for instance) and his adept handling of a truly global insights (African and Asian perspectives as legitimate on their own, for another instance) simply do not appear in such fine style in the other texts now on the market. His attention to social history and, especially, to cultural history is superb.”

“Duiker does an excellent job of presenting a country and regionally based history of the twentieth century. He follows through on his conviction that what is most important is presenting particular national histories in order to give students basic knowledge about how different other cultures and histories are from our own.”

“I like this book more than any other one. Bulliet’s The Earth and Its Peoples is aesthetically unpleasing, too general about too many topics, and is too focused on environment rather than politics.”