Marks offers a new broad sweep of this period that significantly is not Eurocentric in approach.  His book reflects the more recent advanced scholarship that considers the influence of Asia and departs from the traditional interpretation of the ‘Rise of the West’ or the ‘European Miracle’ as the foundation of the modern world.  This book is extremely informative; the author delves into ecological issues that include critical contemporary questions, such as global warming, and occasionally population growths and declines, as in the horrific period appropriately labeled the ‘Black Death’ in the mid-14th century, an epidemic that affected three continents.  Numerous maps of the world support the book's global theme, and Marks writes that for well over 1,000 years, the Indian Ocean ‘arguably was the single most important crossroad of trade and generator of merchant wealth in the world.’  The book's main topics are the expansion of the Russian, Chinese, and Ottoman Empires; the conquest of the Americas; the spread of Islam; the Industrial Revolution; and the rise of the US.  This serious and important work, written in a historically conventional manner, is thoughtful, relevant to the present times, and well written. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.
CHOICE
In a mere 218 pages of accessible prose, Robert Marks distills world history of the past six centuries to its essence. Truly global in scope, and fully attentive to environmental contexts, this book is ideal for the classroom: it will provoke both thought and discussion—and occasional disagreement.
John R. McNeill, Georgetown University This third edition of The Origins of the Modern World accentuates the book’s strengths—especially by deepening its discussion of environmental change and of global inequality—while remaining compact, highly readable, and easy to connect with contemporary concerns. Fair-minded but not bland, it has a potential to spark classroom discussion that conventional  textbooks rarely have, while providing a helpful basic narrative around which to organize an appealing world history class.
Kenneth Pomeranz, University of Chicago The Origins of the Modern World combines two virtues that most textbooks lack: concision and an actual thesis. Rather than assuming the voice of an omniscient narrator, Marks makes a compelling argument about the multiple causes and consequences—human and ecological—of modernity. My students actually read this text, grasp its arguments, and find it stimulating.
E. Taylor Atkins, Northern Illinois University Always the favorite when it comes to incisive world history agenda-setting, the third edition of The Origins of the Modern World  has a more fully developed overview, one that is big on humans and the history of the environment and encourages critical thinking on a global scale.
Edmund Burke III, University of California at Santa Cruz