This classic text provides a revised and updated survey of the social sciences, written in an unbiased manner with a multidisciplinary, common sense approach. Comprehensive coverage incorporates elements of anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, history, and geography. The twelfth edition highlights the dramatic political and economic changes that have swept the world in recent years, including extensive examinations of the impact of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks in the Political Science and Economics chapters.