Synopses & Reviews
There are many reasons why this is the number one selling Western Civilization text in the country. The clear, single-author narrative by Jackson Spielvogel presents history in an appealing and accessible manner. This text truly tells a story that students will understand. WESTERN CIVILIZATION strikes a true balance and provides a synthesis of political, economic, social, religious, military, cultural, and intellectual history. This balance gives students a solid foundation for further study in history. Chapter 29, The Contemporary Western World Since 1970 is a particularly good illustration of the text's balance. The book's documents and maps are useful and superb.
About the Author
Jackson J. Spielvogel is Associate Professor Emeritus of history at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, where he specialized in Reformation history under Harold J. Grimm. His articles and reviews have appeared in journals such as MOREANA; JOURNAL OF GENERAL EDUCATION; CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW; ARCHIV FÜR REFORMATIONSGESCHICHTE; and AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW. He also has contributed chapters or articles to THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF REFORMATION; THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE: A DICTIONARY HANDBOOK; SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER ANNUAL OF HOLOCAUST STUDIES; and UTOPIAN STUDIES. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and the Foundation for Reformation Research. At Penn State, he helped inaugurate the Western civilization course, as well as a popular course on Nazi Germany. His book HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY was published in 1987 (sixth edition, 2010). He is the author of WESTERN CIVILIZATION, first published in 1991 (eighth edition, 2012) and is the co-author (with William Duiker) of WORLD HISTORY, first published in January 1994 (seventh edition, 2013). Professor Spielvogel has won five major university-wide teaching awards. During the year 1988-1989, he held the Penn State Teaching Fellowship, the university's most prestigious teaching award. In 1996, he won the Dean Arthur Ray Warnock Award for Outstanding Faculty member, and in 2000 received the Schreyer Honors College Excellence in Teaching Award.
Table of Contents
1.The Ancient Near East: The First Civilizations. 2. The Ancient Near East: Peoples and Empires. 3. The Civilization of the Greeks. 4. The Hellenistic World. 5. The Roman Republic. 6. The Roman Empire. 7. The Passing of the Roman World and the Emergence of Medieval Civilization. 8. European Civilization in the Early Middle Ages, 750-1000. 9. The Recovery and Growth of European Society in the High Middle Ages. 10. A New World of Cities and Kingdoms. 11. The Late Middle Ages: Crisis and Disintegration in the Fourteenth Century. 12. Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance. 13. The Age of Reformation. 14. Discovery and Crisis in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. 15. Response to Crisis: State Building and the Search for Order in the Seventeenth Century. 16. Toward a New Heaven and a New Earth: The Scientific Revolution and the Emergence of Modern Science. 17. The Eighteenth Century: An Age of Enlightenment. 18. The Eighteenth Century: European States, International Wars, And Social Change. 19. A Revolution in Politics: The Era of the French Revolution and Napoleon. 20. The Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on European Society. 21. Reaction, Revolution, and Romanticism, 1815-1850. 22. An Age of Nationalism and Realism, 1850-1871. 23. Mass Society in an "Age of Progress", 1871-1894. 24. An Age of Modernity and Anxiety, 1894-1914. 25. The Beginning of the Twentieth-Century Crisis: War and Revolution. 26. The Futile Search for a New Stability: Europe Between the Wars, 1919-1939. 27. The Deepening of the European Crisis: World War II. 28. Cold War and a New Europe, 1945-1970. 29. The Contemporary Western World (since 1970).