The textbook completes the line on universal history for high schools (basic and in-depth levels). Based on modern scientific ideas, it highlights the most important events in the political, economic and spiritual life of society of the 20th - early 21st centuries. The methodological apparatus of the textbook includes a variety of questions and tasks, illustrations, maps and documentary materials that allow students to firmly assimilate the basic facts and concepts of the historical course. The textbook complies with the Federal State Educational Standard of Secondary General Education.