1. Introduction and overview David Christian; Part I. Historiography, Method, and Themes: 2. Writing world history Marnie Hughes-Warrington; 3. The evolution of world histories Dominic Sachsenmaier; 4. Evolution, rupture and periodisation Michael Lang; 5. From divergence to convergence: centrifugal and centripetal forces in history David Northrup; 6. Belief, knowledge and language Luke Clossey; 7. Historiography of technology and innovation Daniel Headrick; 8. Fire and fuel in human history Johan Goudsblom; 9. Family history and world history: from domestication to biopolitics Mary Jo Maynes and Ann Waltner; 10. Gendered world history Merry Wiesner-Hanks; 11. What does anthropology contribute to world history? Jack Goody; 12. Migration in human history Pat Manning; Part II. The Palaeolithic and the Beginnings of Human History: 13. Before the farmers: culture and climate from the emergence of homo sapiens to about ten thousand years ago Felipe Fernandez-Arnesto; 14. Early humans: tools, language and culture Christopher Ehret; 15. Africa from 48,000 to 9600 BCE Christopher Ehret; 16. Migration and innovation in Palaeolithic Europe John Hoffecker; 17. Asian Palaeolithic dispersals Robin Dennell; 18. The Pleistocene colonisation and occupation of Australasia Peter Hiscock; 19. The Pleistocene colonisation and occupation of the Americas Nicole M. Waguespack.