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SPOT MAP

Revolt in Saint-Domingue (Haiti)

MAP 19.3

Napoleon’s Grand Empire in 1810

FEATURES

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FILM & HISTORY

Joan of Arc (1948), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)

Luther (2003)

Elizabeth (1998)

The Mission (1986)

Amadeus (1984)

Marie Antoinette (2006)

OPPOSING VIEW POINTS

Causes of the Black Death: Contemporary Views

The Renaissance Prince: The Views of Machiavelli and Erasmus

A Reformation Debate: Conflict at Marburg

West Meets East: An Exchange of Royal Letters

Oliver Cromwell: Three Perspectives

A New Heaven? Faith Versus Reason

Women in the Age of the Enlightenment: Rousseau and Wollstonecraft

Enlightened Absolutism: Enlightened or Absolute?

The Natural Rights of the French People: Two Views

IMAGES OF EVERYDAY LIFE

Entertainment in the Middle Ages

Spices and World Trade

Dutch Domesticity

The Aristocratic Way of Life

PREFACE

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DURING A VISIT to Great Britain, where he studied as a young man, Mohandas Gandhi, the leader of the effort to liberate India from British colonial rule, was asked what he thought of Western civilization. “I think it would be a good idea,” he replied. Gandhi’s response was as correct as it was clever. Western civilization has led to great problems as well as great accomplishments, but it remains a good idea. And any complete understanding of today’s world must take into account the meaning of Western civilization and the role Western civilization has played in history. Despite modern progress, we still greatly reflect our religious traditions, our political systems and theories, our economic and social structures, and our cultural heritage. I have written this history of Western civilization to assist a new generation of students in learning more about the past that has helped create them and the world in which they live.

At the same time, for the eighth edition, as in the seventh, I have added considerable new material on world history to show the impact other parts of the world have made on the West. Certainly, the ongoing struggle with terrorists since 2001 has made clear the intricate relationship between the West and the rest of the world. It is important then to show not only how Western civilization has affected the rest of the world but also how it has been influenced and even defined since its beginnings by contacts with other peoples around the world.

Another of my goals was to write a well-balanced work in which the political, economic, social, religious, intellectual, cultural, and military aspects of Western civilization have been integrated into a chronologically ordered synthesis. I have been especially aware of the need to integrate the latest research on social history and women’s history into each chapter of the book rather than isolating it either in lengthy topical chapters, which confuse the student by interrupting the chronological narrative, or in separate sections that appear at periodic intervals between chapters.

Another purpose in writing this history of Western civilization has been to put the story back in history. Th at story is an exciting one; yet many textbooks fail to capture the imagination of their readers. Narrative history effectively transmits the knowledge of the past and is the form that best aids remembrance. At the same time, I have not overlooked the need for the kind of historical analysis that makes students aware that historians often disagree on their interpretations of the past.

Features of the Text

To enliven the past and let readers see for themselves the materials that historians use to create their pictures of the past, I have included in each chapter primary sources (boxed documents) that are keyed to the discussion in the text. The documents include examples of the religious, artistic, intellectual, social, economic, and political aspects of Western life. Such varied sources as a Renaissance banquet menu, a student fight song in nineteenth-century Britain, letters exchanged between a husband on the battle front and his wife