New York: William H McNeill, the prize-winning scholar who wove the stories of civilizations worldwide into the landmark "The Rise of the West" and helped pioneer the history of disease and epidemics in "Plagues and People," has died at age 98.

McNeill died Friday at his home in Torrington, Connecticut, according to Steve Koppes, associate news director at the University of Chicago, where McNeill was a professor emeritus. McNeill wrote more than a dozen books, notably "The Rise of the West," published in 1963 and greeted by The New York Times as "the most stimulating and fascinating" work of world history ever released.