Glimpses of World History / by Jawaharlal Nehru

Includes postscript and index.

FROM CENTRAL PRISON, NAINI: A birthday letter -- A new year’s gift -- The lesson of history -- Inqilab Zindabad -- Asia and Europe -- The old civilizations and our inheritance -- The Hellenes -- The Greek city states -- Empires in Western Asia -- The burden of old tradition -- The village republics of Ancient India -- A thousand years of China -- The call of the past -- Where do riches go to -- The sixth century before Christ and religion -- Persia and Greece -- The glory that was Hellas -- A famous conqueror but a conceited young man -- Chandragupta Maurya and the Arthashastra -- FROM ON BOARD S.S. "CRACOVIA" IN THE ARABIAN SEA: Three months -- The Arabian Sea -- FROM DISTRICT GOAL, BAREILLY: A holiday and a dream journey -- Man’s struggle for a living -- A survey – Ashoka, the beloved of the Gods -- The world of Ashoka's time -- The Ch’ins and the Hans -- Rome against Carthage -- The Roman Republic becomes an Empire -- South India overshadows the North -- The borderland empire of the Kushans -- Jesus and Christianity -- The Roman empire -- The Roman empire splits up and finally becomes a ghost -- The idea of the world state -- Parthia and the Sassanids -- South India colonizes -- Hindu imperialism under the Guptas -- The Huns come to India -- India's control of foreign markets -- The ups and downs of countries and civilizations -- China flourishes under the tangs -- Chosen and Dai Nippon -- Harsha-Vardhana and Hiuen Tsang -- South India produces many kings and warriors and a great man -- India in the middle ages -- Angkor the magnificent and Sri Vijaya -- Rome relapses into darkness -- The coming of Islam -- The Arabs conquer from Spain to Mongolia -- Baghdad and Harunal-Rashid -- From Harsha to Mahmud in North India -- The countries of Europe take shape -- The feudal system -- China pushes the nomads to the west -- The shogun rules in Japan -- FROM DISTRICT GOAL, DEHRA DUN: The quest of man -- The end of the first millennium after Christ -- Another look at Asia and Europe -- The Maya Civilization of America -- A jump back to Mohenjo-daro -- Cordoba and Granada -- The crusades -- Europe at the time of the crusades -- The rise of European cities -- The Afghans invade India -- The slave kings of Delhi -- Chengiz Khan shakes up Asia and Europe -- The Mongols dominate the world -- Marco Polo the great traveller -- The Roman Church becomes militant -- The fight against authoritarianism -- The passing of the middle ages -- The discovery of the sea routes -- The break-up of the Mongol Empires -- India begins to tackle a difficult problem -- The Kingdoms of South India -- Vijayanagar -- The Malaysian empires of Madjapahit and Malacca -- Europe begins to Grab in Eastern Asia -- An age of peace and prosperity in China -- Japan shuts herself up -- Europe in turmoil -- The renaissance -- The protestant revolt and the peasant’s war -- Autocracy in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe -- The Netherlands fight for freedom -- England cuts off the head of her King -- Babar -- Akbar -- The decline and fall of the Moghal empire in India -- The Sikhs and the Marathas -- The English triumph over their rivals in India -- A great Manchu ruler in China -- A Chinese Emperor writes to an English king -- The war of ideas in eighteenth-century Europe -- Europe on the eve of the great changes -- The coming of the big machine -- The industrial revolution begins in England -- America breaks away from England -- The fall of the bastille -- The French Revolution -- Revolution and counter-revolution -- The ways of government -- Napoleon -- More about Napoleon -- A survey of the world -- The hundred years before the world war – The nineteenth century continued -- War and revolt in India -- The Indian artisan goes to the wall -- The village, the peasant, and the landlord in India -- How Britain ruled India -- The reawakening of India -- Britain forces opium on China -- China in difficulties -- Japan rushes ahead -- Japan defeats Russia -- China becomes a Republic -- Farther India and the east Indies -- Another New Year’s Day -- The Philippines and the United States of America -- Where three continents meet -- A look back -- The persistence of Iran's old traditions -- Imperialism and Nationalism in Persia -- About revolutions generally, and especially those of eighteen forty-eight in Europe -- Italy becomes a United and free Nation -- The rise of Germany -- Some famous writers -- Darwin and the triumph of science -- The advance of democracy -- The coming of socialism -- Karl marks and the growth of workers’ organisations -- Marxism -- The Victorian age in England -- England becomes the world's money lender -- Civil war in America -- The Invisible empire of America -- Seven hundred years of conflict between Ireland and England -- Home rule and Sinn Fein in Ireland -- Britain seizes and holds on to Egypt -- Turkey becomes the “Sick man of Europe” -- The Russia of the Tsars -- The Russian revolution of 1905 that failed -- The end of an epoch -- The world war begins -- India on the eve of the war -- War 1914-1918 -- The course of the war -- The passing away of Tsardom in Russia -- The Bolsheviks seize power -- The Soviets win through -- Japan bullies China -- India during war-time -- The new map of Europe -- The post-war world – Ireland’s fight for a Republic -- A new Turkey rises from the ashes -- Mustafa Kemal breaks with the past -- India follows Gandhi -- India in the nineteen-twenties -- Peaceful rebellion in India -- Egypt’s fight for freedom -- What independence under the British mean -- Western Asia re-enters world politics -- The Arab countries - Syria -- Palestine and Trans-Jordan -- Arabia - a jump from the middle ages -- Iraq and the virtues of aerial bombing -- Afghanistan and some other countries of Asia -- The revolution that did not come off -- A new way of paying old debts -- The strange behaviour of money -- Move and counter move -- Mussolini and fascism in Italy -- Democracy and dictatorships -- Revolution and counter-revolution in China -- japan defies the world -- The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics -- The Piatiletka, or Russia’s five year plan -- The Soviet Union’s difficulties, failures and successes -- Science goes ahead -- The good and bad applications of science -- The great depression and world crisis -- What caused the crisis -- The struggle of America and England for leadership -- The dollar, the pound and the rupee -- The capitalist world fails to pull together -- Revolution in Spain -- The Nazi triumph in Germany -- Disarmament -- President Roosevelt to the rescue -- The failure of parliaments -- A final look around the world -- The shadow of war -- The last letter