Studying change in the course of human history, in different places, through the lens of a diverse set of core themes, World History for International Studies offers readers a set of windows into different debates historians have been conducting. Key themes, such as communication, trade, order, slavery, religion, war, identity, modernity, norms and ecology, are linked to specific world regions, which tell a story about how local ideas and individual contacts developed, started to overlap and became globally understood and used by ever larger groups of people. These themes are brought to life by a diverse set of key primary sources, such as a book, a letter, a medal, a temple and an epic, to showcase how historians have used sources to tell these stories and conduct debates. The book provides an introductory resource into the study of history and includes detailed suggestions for further study.

Isabelle Duyvesteyn is a Professor of International Studies at the Institute of History at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She completed her PhD in War Studies at King's College London on military theory. Prior to joining the Leiden History Institute, she held a special chair in Strategic Studies at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden. Her research interests include contemporary history and theory of war, peace and security.

Anne Marieke van der Wal is an Assistant Professor of African History and International Studies at Leiden University. She completed a PhD in African History and Cultural Heritage at the Institute of History at Utrecht University. Her main research interests include the history of South Africa, Indian Ocean Slavery, Slave Trade, Memory and Subaltern history.