Teachers of world history are placing less emphasis on Western culture and rote memorization in favor of more global, diverse, and creative content. This book is intended to serve as an example of some of the innovations that are occurring in today's classrooms and as encouragement for future exploration. The book presents new subject matter, new perspectives, and new classroom strategies for helping teachers transform their courses into intellectual adventures. The first part of the book describes three very different courses, with explanations of student and course objectives. It offers specific approaches to lessons, ways to acquire rich materials, and samples of performance-based assessments. The second part of the book takes a broad look at how to conceptualize a world history course, with special attention to pedagogical, methodological, and scholarly concerns. It includes a general discussion of content selection, course development challenges, the role of national content standards, and motivational strategies. The book is designed to be a resource for creating a course that is better versed in recent scholarship and new historical methods for reflecting the range of human experience. (BT)