This book offers principles to consider when creating a world history syllabus; it prompts a teacher, rather than aiming for full world coverage, to pick an interpretive focus and thread it through the course. It will be used by university faculty, graduate students, and high school teachers who are teaching world history for the first time or want to rethink their approach to teaching the subject (and for those training world history teachers). Few academics have been trained to teach world history, yet many universities are adding the subject to their curricula and 60% of U.S. states require World History for high school graduation.

A Primer for Teaching World History is a guide for college and high school teachers who are designing an introductory-level world history syllabus for the first time, for those who already teach world history and are seeking new ideas or approaches, and for those who train future teachers to prepare any history course with a global or transnational focus. Drawing on her own classroom practices, as well as her career as a historian, Antoinette Burton offers a set of principles to help instructors think about how to design their courses with specific goals in mind, whatever those may be. She encourages teachers to envision the world history syllabus as having an architecture: a fundamental, underlying structure or interpretive focus that runs throughout the course, shaping students' experiences, offering pathways in and out of "the global," and reflecting the teacher's convictions about the world and the work of history.

"“What emerges from the work is a portrait of a reflective historian. Burton has created her own course, built on her own specialties in the British Empire and the body. She is thus a knowledgeable and opinionated guide…Therefore, it is a work that should be read and discussed by all serious practitioners.”" - World History Connected

"“Burton offers guidance for both the area specialist hired to teach a class for which they lack specific training, and the secondary teacher, who, even with an assigned textbook, must choose what shape their course will have…. There is plenty here to engage the experienced classroom teacher…. [T]eachers at every level will find most useful Burton’s description of the many strategies and teaching techniques which she has used successfully.”" - The History Teacher

"“For those writing, teaching, or reading about global Christian history, there is much of value in Burton's volume, and yet it is not just about Christianity. She raises significant issues of meaning, value, and connection…without concluding what must or should be taught. She opens a number of doors for global historical scholarship, but each writer and teacher must decide which ones to enter, and to what purpose.”" - International Bulletin of Missionary Research

"“This book is recommended reading for all teachers and PhD students who want to know more about world history and are looking for practical suggestions on how to design and organise their syllabus.”" - European Review of History

"“Burton’s examples of syllabus design and teaching strategies are… imaginative and lively… and they break away from the textbook world history model that often feels like a history of the West and the rest…. Burton’s book will resonate most with those teachers who have learned from experience how much they can—and must—‘dare to omit’ in their pursuit of effective, skills-based teaching.”" - History: Reviews of New Books

"[Burton's] emphasis on choosing a theme that unifies (and narrows) coverage of the world's different regions, while also creating course assignments that develop students' skills, is particularly helpful to teachers at both college and high school levels faced with the otherwise daunting and overwhelming task of fairly and adequately covering the history of the entire world.... Since studying World History is such an important corrective to past practices, it is good that Burton guides teachers. Any history teacher, and many others in interdisciplinary or area studies, will benefit from reading this book." - Journal of Third World Studies