The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Century

First published in 2002, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Environmental Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century by Robert B. Marks is a world history that asks how the globalized and industrialized modern world came to be. Challenging the notion that the rise of the British Empire and then the US was inevitable, Marks addresses questions like how the West came to dominate the world until relatively recently and how civilization let itself get to the point that it faces the existential threat of climate change? A specialist in environmental and Chinese history, Marks taught history at Whittier College in California until his retirement in 2019.

Several editions of The Origins of the Modern World have been published. This guide refers to the 2024 edition of the book.

Summary

The Origins of the Modern World begins in the year 1400, when all of humanity lived under what Robert B. Marks describes as the “old biological regime” (19). This refers to the fact that only so much land was available, and agriculture could produce only so many crops, limiting how much a society’s population could grow. All economies were agricultural, and although large cities like Nanking in China, Vijayanagar in India, and Constantinople in modern-day Turkey existed, most people lived in rural areas.