This first volume of the Cambridge World History limps on two legs: it provides a general introduction to the movement of World History, and an overview of human history up to approximately 10,000 years ago. As always with a work made by different authors, the level of the contributions is quite uneven and there are many overlaps and inconsistencies. For example, the method of dating: most authors use the BCE-notation (Before Common Era, corresponding to the Christian era), others the BP-notation (Before Present). Personally, I’m a fan of the latter, because the chronological distance to the period involved is so large that it is strange to take a fairly arbitrary date from about 2,000 years ago as a benchmark. And while we're at it, another oddity: none other than David Christian is the editor of this book; he is the father of the Big History (see Maps of Time and Origin Story) that fits human history into that of the universe in its entirety and thus takes the Big Bang as a starting point. But this World History only begins with the appearance of the homo sapiens, about 200.00 year ago.
Recommended reading, for sure, but with a few major issues. More about that in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3457747447 ( )