Synopses & Reviews
WESTERN CIVILIZATION, Sixth Edition, is distinguished for its wider definition of Europe that includes Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and European frontiers. Recognizing that factors outside the continent affected European history, the authors highlight Europe's place in the world throughout the narrative and in the primary source feature, "The Global Record". Carefully revised and edited for greater accessibility, the Sixth Edition is briefer and incorporates pedagogical features such as focus questions, key terms, and section summaries to better support students of western civilization. The reconceived narrative and streamlined organization, featuring smaller, more cohesive learning units, lend to greater ease of use for both students and instructors. Available in the following split options: WESTERN CIVILIZATION Complete (Chapters 1-30),
Synopsis
WESTERN CIVILIZATION, Sixth Edition, is distinguished for both its wider definition of Europe that includes Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and European frontiers and its global coverage.
About the Author
After receiving his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, Thomas Noble taught at Albion College, Michigan State University, Texas Tech University, and the University of Virginia. In 1999 he received the University of Virginia's highest award for teaching excellence and in 2008 Notre Dame's Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 2011 he received the Charles Sheedy, C.S.C., award for excellence in teaching and scholarship from Notre Dame's College of Arts and Letters. In 2001 he became Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame and in 2008 chairperson of Notre Dame's history department. He is the author of Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians, which won the 2011 Otto Gründler Prize, and The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680-825. He has edited six books. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in 1994 and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in 1999-2000. He has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Humanities (three times) and the American Philosophical Society (twice). He was elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America in 2004. In 2012 he served as president of the American Catholic Historical Association. Professor of history and classics at Cornell University, Barry Strauss holds a Ph.D. from Yale. He has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Academy in Rome, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, The MacDowell Colony for the Arts, the Korea Foundation, and the Killam Foundation of Canada. He is the recipient of the Clark Award for excellence in teaching from Cornell. He is Chair of Cornell's Department of History, Director of Cornell's Program on Freedom and Free Societies, and Past Director of Cornell's Peace Studies Program. His many publications include Athens After the Peloponnesian War: Class, Faction, and Policy, 403-386 B.C.; Fathers and Sons in Athens: Ideology and Society in the Era of the Peloponnesian War; The Anatomy of Error: Ancient Military Disasters and Their Lessons for Modern Strategists (with Josiah Ober); Hegemonic Rivalry from Thucydides to the Nuclear Age (coedited with R. New Lebow); War and Democracy: A Comparative Study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War (coedited with David R. McCann); Rowing Against the Current: On Learning to Scull at Forty; The Battle of Salamis, the Naval Encounter That Saved Greece-and Western Civilization; The Trojan War: A New History; The Spartacus War; and Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar and the Genius of War. His books have been translated into seven languages. His book The Battle of Salamis was named one of the best books of 2004 by the Washington Post. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome with a Ph.D. in History from the University of California at Davis, Duane Osheim is professor of history at the University of Virginia. He has held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Program. He is author and editor of A Tuscan Monastery and Its Social World; An Italian Lordship: The Bishopric of Lucca in the Late Middle Ages; Beyond Florence: The Contours of Medieval and Early Modern Italy; and Chronicling History: Chroniclers and Historians in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. After receiving her Ph.D. from Brown University, Kristen Neuschel taught at Denison University and Duke University, where she is currently associate professor of history and Director of the Thompson Writing Program. She is a specialist in early modern French history and is the author of Word of Honor: Interpreting Noble Culture in Sixteenth-Century France and articles on French social history and European women's history. She has received grants from the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has also received the Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, which is awarded annually on the basis of student nominations for excellence in teaching at Duke. Professor of history and gender studies at the University of Southern California, Elinor Accampo completed her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to her career at USC, she taught at Colorado College and Denison University. She specializes in modern France and is the author of Blessed Motherhood; Bitter Fruit: Nelly Roussel and the Politics of Female Pain in Third Republic France; and Industrialization, Family, and Class Relations: Saint Chamond, 1815-1914. She has coedited (with Christopher Forth) Confronting Modernity in Fin-de-Siècle France and (with Rachel Fuchs and Mary Lynn Stewart) Gender and the Politics of Social Reform in France. She has received fellowships and travel grants from the German Marshall Fund, the Haynes Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as an award for Innovative Undergraduate Teaching at USC.
Table of Contents
1. The Ancestors of the West. Origins, to ca. 3000 B.C. Mesopotamia, to ca. 1600 B.C. Egypt, to ca. 1100 B.C. Widening Horizons: The Levant and Anatolia, 2500-1150 B.C. The Visual Record: The Iceman and His World. 2. The Sword, the Book, and the Myths: Western Asia and Early Greece. Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, and Persians, ca. 1200-330 B.C. Israel, ca. 1500-400 B.C. Early Greece, to ca. 725 B.C. The Visual Record: The Trojan War. 3. The Age of the Polis in Greece, ca. 750-350 B.C. Society and Politics in Archaic Greece, ca. 750-500 B.C. The Culture of Archaic Greece. Classical Greece. The Public Culture of Classical Greece. The Visual Record: The Parthenon. 4. Alexander the Great and the Spread of Greek Civilization, ca. 350-30 B.C. Philip and Alexander. The Hellenistic Kingdoms, 323-30 B.C. Alexandrian Culture. The Turn Inward: New Philosophies, New Faiths. The Visual Record: Images of Cleopatra. 5. Rome, from Republic to Empire. Before the Republic, 753-509 B.C. The Early And Middle Republic at Home, ca. 509-133 B.C. The Early And Middle Republic Abroad, ca. 509-133 B.C. The Late Republic And Its Collapse, 133-31 B.C. The Visual Record: From Poseidonia to Paestum. 6. Imperial Rome, 31 B.C.-A.D. 284. Augustus and the Principate, 31 B.C.-A.D. 68. The Roman Peace and Its Collapse, A.D. 69-284. Early Christianity. The Visual Record: Gladiators. 7. The World of Late Antiquity, 284-ca.600. Rebuilding the Roman Empire, 284-395. The Catholic Church and the Roman Empire, 313-604. The Rise of Germanic Kingdoms in the West, ca. 370-530. The Roman Empire in the East, 395-565. Society and Culture in Late Antiquity. The Written Record: Two Views of the Huns. The Global Record: Christianity Arrives in Nubia. The Visual Record: The Ravenna Mosaics. 8. Early Medieval Civilizations, 600-900. The Islamic East. The Byzantine Empire. Catholic Kingdoms in the West. The Carolingian Empire. Early Medieval Economies and Societies. The Visual Record: Icons. 9. The Expansion of Europe in the High Middle Ages, 900-1300. Economic Expansion. The Heirs of the Carolingian Empire: Germany, Italy, and France. The British Isles. The Growth of New States. The Crusades. The Visual Record: The Medieval Castle. 10. Medieval Civilization at Its Height, 900-1300. The Traditional Orders of Society. Social and Religious Movements, ca. 1100-1300. Latin Culture: From Schools to Universities. The Vernacular Achievement. The Visual Record: Stained Glass. 11. Crisis and Recovery in Late Medieval Europe, 1300-1500. The Crisis of the Western Christian Church. War and the Struggle over Political Power, 1300-1450. Crisis in Economy and Society. The Consolidation of Political Power, 1450-1500. The Visual Record: A Painting of the Plague. 12. The Renaissance. Humanism and Culture in Italy, 1300-1500. Painting and the Arts, 1250-1550. The Spread of the Renaissance, 1350-1536. The Renaissance and Court Society. The Visual Record: Renaissance Marriage Chests. 13. European Overseas Expansion to 1600. The European Background, 1250-1492. Portuguese Voyages of Exploration, 1350-1515. Spanish Voyages of Exploration, 1492-1522. Spain's Colonial Empire, 1492-1600. The Columbian Exchange. The Visual Record: "The Mulattos of Esmeraldas. 14. The Age of the Reformation. The Reformation Movements, ca. 1517-1545. The Empire of Charles V (r. 1519-1556). The English Reformation, 1520-1603. France, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe, 1523-1560. The Late Reformation, ca. 1545-1600. The Visual Record: A Reformation Woodcut. 15. Europe in the Age of Religious Wars, 1560-1648. Imperial Spain and the Limits of Royal Power. Religious and Political Conflict in France and England. Religious and Political Conflict in Central and Eastern Europe. Economic Change and Social Tensions. Writing, Drama, and Art in an Age of Upheaval. The Visual Record: Baroque Art. 16. Europe in the Age of Louis XIV, ca. 1640-1715. France in the Age of Absolutism. The English Civil War and Its Aftermath. New Powers in Central and Eastern Europe. The Expansion of Overseas Trade and Settlement. The Visual Record: Table Manners. 17. A Revolution in World-View. The Revolution in Astronomy, 1543-1632. The Scientific Revolution Expands, ca. 1600-1700. The New Science in Context: Society, Politics, and Religion. The Visual Record: Modern Maps.