Designed for high-school and college students, this resource emerged from state standards and other guidelines and recommendations on the teaching of history. The author, a U.S. history professor, has brought "over 2,000 of the most studied and important people, events, places, and ideas" in entries usually a brief paragraph long but sometimes a page ( Civil rights movement) or just a few sentences.

Alphabetically arranged in double columns, the entries range from prehistory to the present. Among the topics one will find here are Chinese philosopher Han Feizi (c. 280-233 BCE); Hijra, the escape of Muhammad from Mecca in 622, which marks the start of the Muslim calendar; Lucy, whose bones discovered in South Africa in 1924 pinpoint the Australopithecine step in human evolution; Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. magazine in 1972; and WAVES, the women's branch of the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1972. Running heads, cross-references in boldface type, and an alphabetical list of entries enable users to quickly locate information, as does the "Topical List of Entries," which arranges content by region and era. Entries are preceded by some 70 black-and-white maps. The information is accurate and current. A list of history Web sites is helpful, and the bibliography at the end of the volume includes very recent publications. The accurate index furthers the overall helpfulness of the work.

While a one-volume dictionary of world history cannot be comprehensive, the author has clearly carried out the intent of the work. The new edition of Chambers Dictionary of World History (Chambers, 2005) provides more comprehensive coverage of key figures and events in more than 7,500 entries. Although the information in Greenwood can be located elsewhere, its strengths in topics beyond U.S. history and the fact that it was developed based on widely accepted guidelines make it especially valuable for students, teachers, and librarians as an initial reference source.