The period is extraordinarily important: The late twentieth century was a time of significant advances in science and technology. Space probes explored comets and the outer planets. Personal computers were born and quickly grew to change the way people all over the world work, play, and communicate. With the rise of the Internet, information of all kinds became available at the click of a button. In addition, advances in biotechnology during this period were groundbreaking, producing the first genetically engineered vaccine, a map of the human genome, and the first successfully cloned mammal. The events covered include the curriculum-oriented geopolitical events of the era - from end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in 1973 to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Essays also address important social and cultural developments in daily life: major literary movements, significant developments in the arts and motion pictures, trends in world population and immigration, and landmark social legislation.

 

The events covered include the geopolitical events of the era--from World War II (1939-1945) and the Holocaust to the formation of the United Nations and the start of the Cold War in 1945, from the Korean War (1950-1953) to the war in Vietnam (1959-1975). Essays also address important social and cultural developments in literature, the arts, music, law, and social and civil rights legislation. Among the many broad subjects receiving extensive coverage are the emerging environmental movement and the growing awareness of pollution; Europe's changing political divisions and shifting alliances; global human rights struggles, including those of women, children, minority groups, and political refugees; the nuclear age; space exploration; postcolonial struggles and revolutionary political movements; dictatorships; and famine and natural disasters. This set also covers major advances in medicine, science, and technology, including those discoveries that brought fundamental changes to daily life beginning in the early 1940's. Medical scientists learned that DNA carries hereditary information and that its structure is in the form of a double-helix; they developed the polio vaccine and determined the structure of insulin and penicillin; and they advanced x-ray photography for medical purposes. Milestones were reached in computer technology, aviation, physics, astronomy, geology, and telecommunications.

 

400 of the most important and most publicized scandals throughout the world since the beginning of the twentieth century. Great Events from History: Modern Scandals is an entirely new reference set on a subject that has never been covered as broadly and thoroughly in any other reference publication. However, before considering the content of this set, attention must be paid to the meaning of the word "scandal"- a concept more elusive than one might at first appreciate. Scandals are typically high-profile events that garner considerable media attention and public discussion but nevertheless often remain poorly understood.

The early twentieth century receives worldwide coverage with the priority of meeting the needs of history students at the high school and undergraduate levels. The events covered include the curriculum-oriented geopolitical events of the era--from World War I (1914-1918) and the Russian Revolution (1917) to the rise of the German Nazi Party , the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and the eruption of World War II in Europe (1939). Essays also address important social and cultural developments in daily life: major literary movements, significant developments in art and music, trends in immigration, and landmark social legislation. Among the many broad subjects that receive extensive coverage are Europe's changing political divisions and shifting alliances, the struggles of women around the world to gain the right to vote, the development of trade unionism and the labor movement, and the global impacts of the Great Depression.

Continuing the series Great Events from History, these volumes cover the world's most important events and developments from 1801 through 1900. Essays address important social and cultural developments in daily life: major literary movements, significant developments in art and music, trends in immigration, and progressive social legislation. Among the many broad subjects that receive extensive coverage are Europe's changing political divisions and shifting alliances, the struggles to end slavery and extend full citizenship to African Americans in the United States, the steady expansion of democracy in the Western world, the liberation of Latin America from European rule, the exploration of Africa, and the expansion of European imperialism in Africa and Asia.

Included in this set are milestones in the geopolitics of the era - from the Thirty Years' War to the War of the League of Augsburg; from Europeans' arrival in Australia to the establishment of the Louisiana Colony. Also essays address key social developments in daily life: the practice of birth control; the popularization of New World imports such as tobacco, coffee, and chocolate; the establishment of Tokyo's "Floating World" district; the ineradicable devastation of the Middle Passage and African American slavery. Students of this age of scientific revolution will learn the stories behind the development of the microscope, the earliest smallpox inoculations, the discovery of Saturn's rings, and the birth of modern chemistry.

Great Events from History: The 18th Century begins with 105 core essays from Salem's acclaimed Chronology of European History (1997) and Great Events from History: North American Series (1997). The set adds 238 new essays. The century receives worldwide coverage with a priority for meeting the needs of history students at the high school and undergraduate levels. Events covered include the obligatory geopolitical events of the era - from the War of the Spanish Succession through the American and French Revolutions, from the collapse of the South Sea Bubble to the rise of Napoleon. Also, however, the essays address key social and cultural developments in daily life: the expansion of the Atlantic slave trade; the "Enlightenment" in Europe; the excavation of Pompeii; the beginnings of the abolitionist movement in North America; the seeds of the woman suffrage movement; and the opening of Japan to foreign commerce and publications.

Great Events from History: The Renaissance & Early Modern Era, 1454-1600 is the third installment in the ongoing Great Events from History series. The beginning date of 1454 was selected because it immediately follows the end of the Hundred Years' War and the Fall of Constantinople. The following century and a half was marked by the height of the Renaissance in Europe; the rise of the Ottomans; the Wars of the Roses in Britain; European colonial expansion into Africa, Asia, and the Americas; the unification of Japan; the rise of both indigenous and colonial trade empires in Africa; and major changes in world economics and demographics.

The current two volumes of The Middle Ages, 477-1443 add 199 new essays to the original 123, for a total of more than 322 events. The date 477 was selected because it follows The Ancient World's end date, 476 (the fall of Rome), and 1453 was selected because it is the year in which several important developments--notably the proliferation of documents issuing from the newly invented printing press, the end of the Hundred Years' War, and the fall of Constantinople--draw a dividing line between the late Middle Ages and the early modern world. Within this period, the events are arranged strictly chronologically, essentially forming a time line without regard to region. Hence, students can trace world history comparatively, with events in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas comingled. To facilitate location of time periods within the publication, right-hand pages contain date-range tabs.

Great Events from History: The Ancient World, Prehistory-476 C.E. contains 289 all new essays. The new essays increase coverage of events involving prehistoric cultures and social and cultural developments and add coverage in areas of the world not covered by the earlier sets. Discrete events such as battles or deaths to longer, less definite events such as the rise and fall of a culture that took place in the ancient world are covered in this set. The date of 476 C.E., the fall of Rome, was selected by the editors as the cutoff between the ancient world and the Middle Ages. The events are arranged chronologically, forming a time line