Editing World history (field) (section)

===20th century===
World history became a popular genre in the 20th century with [[universal history (genre)|universal history]]. In the 1920s, several best-sellers dealt with the history of the world, including surveys ''[[The Story of Mankind]]'' (1921) by [[Hendrik Willem van Loon]] and ''[[The Outline of History]]'' (1918) by [[H. G. Wells]]. Influential writers who have reached wide audiences include [[H. G. Wells]], [[Oswald Spengler]], [[Arnold J. Toynbee]], [[Pitirim Sorokin]], [[Carroll Quigley]], [[Christopher Dawson]],<ref>Bradley J. Birzer, ''Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson'' (2007)</ref> and [[Lewis Mumford]]. Scholars working the field include [[Eric Voegelin]],<ref>Michael P. Federici, ''Eric Voegelin: The Restoration of Order'' (2002)</ref> [[William Hardy McNeill]] and [[Michael Mann (sociologist)|Michael Mann]].<ref>Michael Mann, ''The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760'' (1986) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/052131349X excerpt and text search]</ref> With evolving technologies such as dating methods and surveying laser technology called LiDAR, contemporary historians have access to new information which changes how past civilizations are studied.

[[Oswald Spengler|Spengler's]] ''Decline of the West'' (2 vol 1919–1922) compared nine organic cultures: Egyptian (3400–1200 BC), Indian (1500–1100 BC), Chinese (1300 BC–AD 200), Classical (1100–400 BC), Byzantine (AD 300–1100), Aztec (AD 1300–1500), Arabian (AD 300–1250), Mayan (AD 600–960), and Western (AD 900–1900). His book was a success among intellectuals worldwide as it predicted the disintegration of European and American civilization after a violent "age of Caesarism", arguing by detailed analogies with other civilizations. It deepened the post-World War I pessimism in Europe, and was warmly received by intellectuals in China, India, and Latin America who hoped his predictions of the collapse of European empires would soon come true.<ref>Neil McInnes, "The Great Doomsayer: Oswald Spengler Reconsidered." ''National Interest'' 1997 (48): 65–76. Fulltext: [[EBSCO Information Services|Ebsco]]</ref>

In 1936–1954, Toynbee's ten-volume ''A Study of History'' came out in three separate installments. He followed Spengler in taking a comparative topical approach to independent civilizations. Toynbee said they displayed striking parallels in their origin, growth, and decay. Toynbee rejected Spengler's biological model of civilizations as organisms with a typical life span of 1,000 years. Like [[Sima Qian]], Toynbee explained decline as due to their moral failure. Many readers rejoiced in his implication (in vols. 1–6) that only a return to some form of Catholicism could halt the breakdown of western civilization which began with the Reformation. Volumes 7–10, published in 1954, abandoned the religious message, and his popular audience shrunk while scholars picked apart his mistakes.<ref>William H. McNeill, ''Arnold J. Toynbee a Life'' (1989)</ref>

[[William Hardy McNeill|McNeill]] wrote ''[[The Rise of the West]]'' (1963) to improve upon Toynbee by showing how the separate civilizations of Eurasia interacted from the very beginning of their history, borrowing critical skills from one another, and thus precipitating still further change as adjustment between traditional old and borrowed new knowledge and practice became necessary. McNeill took a broad approach organized around the interactions of peoples across the Earth. Such interactions have become both more numerous and more continual and substantial in recent times. Before about 1500, the network of communication between cultures was that of Eurasia. The term for these areas of interaction differ from one world historian to another and include ''world-system'' and ''ecumene.'' The importance of these intercultural contacts has begun to be recognized by many scholars.<ref>William H. McNeill, "The Changing Shape of World History." ''History and Theory'' 1995 34(2): 8–26.</ref>