3 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
William McNeill's 1964 study of the borderland between the settled agricultural world and the Eurasian steppe — examining how the struggle between nomadic and sedentary civilizations shaped Eastern European history from 1500 to 1800.
J.R. McNeill's 2010 environmental history of the Caribbean — arguing that yellow fever and malaria (carried by mosquitoes) more than any military force determined which European powers succeeded in the Caribbean and shaped the outcomes of the American Revolution and Haitian Revolution.
William McNeill's 1963 magnum opus — winner of the National Book Award — arguing that Western civilization's rise to global dominance was the result of its unique position at the intersection of multiple civilizational influences (Near Eastern, Greek, Roman, Germanic) and its subsequent openness to borrowing from other cultures.