Imagine twelve leading historians meeting monthly for nine years to discuss innovative ways to present world history. The end result of these conversations is "Worlds Together, Worlds Apart," a unique survey that enables readers to see world history through the eyes of Westerners and non-Westerners alike. Challenging conventional wisdom, this text demonstrates that the rise of the West was unanticipated and, even in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, was never fully realized or stable. Rather than treating cultures and regions as discrete entities, "Worlds Together, Worlds Apart" presents a compelling, event-driven narrative that integrates every region of the world into every chapter.