Dennis Sherman is Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the City University of New York. He received his B.A. (1962) and J.D. (1965) degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. (1970) from the University of Michigan . . He was Visiting Professor at the University of Paris (1978-79; 1985). He has received the Ford Foundation Prize Fellowship, the Council for Research on Economic History fellowship, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. His publications include A Short History of Western Civilization, 8th edition (co-author); Western Civilization: Sources, Images, and Interpretations, 5th edition; World Civilizations: Sources, Images, and Interpretations, 2nd Edition (co-author); a series of introductions in the Garland Library of War and Peace; several articles and reviews on nineteenth-century French economic and social history in American and European journals, and short stories on literary reviews.Joyce Salisbury is Frankenthal Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay where she has taught undergraduates for almost twenty years. She received a PhD in medieval history from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Salisbury is a respected historian who has published many articles and has written or edited eight books, including the critically acclaimed Perpetua's Passion: Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman, and The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages. Professor Salisbury is also an award-winning teacher, who was named "Professor of the Year for Wisconsin in 1991" by CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education), a prestigious national organization.

CHAPTER 1 THE ROOTS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: THE ANCIENT MIDDLE EAST TO 500 B.C.

~ Before Western Civilization

~ Struggling with the Forces of Nature: Mesopotamia, 3000--ca. 1000 B.C.

~ Rule of the God-King: Ancient Egypt, ca. 3100--1000 B.C.

~ Merchants and Monotheists: Peoples of the Mediterranean Coast, ca. 1300--500 B.C.

~ Terror and Benevolence: The Growth of Empires, 1200-500 B.C.

CHAPTER 2 THE CONTEST FOR EXCELLENCE: GREECE, 2000-338 B.C.

~ The Rise and Fall of Ancient Heroes, 2000--800 B.C.

~ Life in the Greek Poleis, 700-489 B.C.

~ Imperial Athens, 489-431 B.C.

~ Destruction, Disillusion and a Search for Meaning

CHAPTER 3 THE POLEIS BECOME COSMOPOLITAN: THE HELLENISTIC WORLD, 323-150 B.C.

~ The Conquest of the Poleis

~ The Successor Kingdoms, 323--ca. 100 B.C

~ East Meets West in the Successor Kingdoms

~ The Search for Truth: Hellenistic Thought, Religion, and Science

CHAPTER 4 PRIDE IN FAMILY AND CITY: ROME FROM ITS ORIGINS THROUGH THE REPUBLIC, 753--44 B.C.

~ The Rise of Rome, 753--265 B.C.

~ Family Life and City Life

~ Expansion and Transformation, 265-133 B.C.

~ The Hellenizing of the Republic

~ The Twilight of the Republic, 134--44 B.C.

CHAPTER 5 TERRITORIAL AND CHRISTIAN EMPIRES: THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C. to A.D. 410

~ The Pax Romana--27 B.C. to A.D. 192

~ Life During the Peace of Rome

~ Crisis and Transformation, A.D. 192--ca. 400

~ The Longing For Religious Fulfillment

~ From Christian Persecution to the City of God, A.D. 64--410

~ The Holy Life

CHAPTER 6 A WORLD DIVIDED: WESTERN KINGDOMS, BYZANTIUM, AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD, ca. 376-1000

~ The Making of the Western Kingdoms, ca. 376-750

~ The Byzantine Empire, ca. 400 – 1000

~ Islam 600 – 1000

CHAPTER 7 THE STRUGGLE TO RESTORE ORDER: THE MIDDLE AGES, ca. 750-1000

~ Bringing Order With Laws and Leadership

~ Anglo-Saxon England: Forwarding Learning and Law

~ Charlemagne and the Carolingians: A New European Empire

~ The Struggle for Order in the Church

~ Order Interrupted: Vikings and Other Invaders

~ Manors and Feudal Ties: Order Emerging From Chaos

CHAPTER 8 ORDER PERFECTED: THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES, 1000-1300

~ Those Who Work: Agricultural Labor

~ Those Outside the Order: Town Life

~ Those Who Fight: Nobles and Knights

~ Rise of Centralized Monarchies

~ Those Who Pray: Imperial Popes and Expanding Christendom

CHAPTER 9 DESPAIR IN THE WEST, EMPIRES IN THE EAST: THE LATE MIDDLE AGES, ca. 1300-1500

~ Economic and Social Misery

~ Imperial Papacy Besieged

~ More Destruction: The Hundred Years’ War, 1337-1453

~ Responses to Disaster and Despair

~ Empires in the East

CHAPTER 10 A NEW SPIRIT IN THE WEST: THE RENAISSANCE, ca. 1300-1640

~ A New Spirit Emerges: Individualism, Realism, and Activism

~ The Politics of Individual Effort

~ Individualism as Self-Interest: Life During the Renaissance

~ An Age of Talent and Beauty: Renaissance Culture and Science

~ Renaissance of the New Monarchies of the North: 1453-1640

CHAPTER 11 "ALONE BEFORE GOD:" RELIGIOUS REFORM AND WARFARE 1500-1648

~ The Clash of Dynasties--1515-1555

~ A Tide of Religious Reform

~ The Catholic Reformation

~ Europe Erupts Again: A Century of Religious Warfare, 1559-1648

~ Life After the Reformation

CHAPTER 12 FAITH, FORTUNE, AND FAME: EUROPEAN EXPANSION, 1450-1700

~ The World Imagined

~ The World Discovered

~ Confrontation of Cultures

~ The World Market and Commercial Revolution

~ The World Transformed

CHAPTER 13 THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL AND SOVEREIGNTY, 1600-1715

~ Stresses in Traditional Society

~ Royal Absolutism in France

~ The Struggle for Sovereignty in Eastern Europe

~ The Triumph of Constitutionalism

CHAPTER 14 A NEW WORLD OF REASON AND MOTION: THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT, 1600-1800

~ Questioning Truth and Authority

~ Developing a Modern Scientific View

~ Supporting and Spreading Science

~ Laying the Foundations for the Enlightenment

~ The Enlightenment in Full Stride