This engaging text offers a concise, readable description of our common Western heritage. Providing a tightly focused narrative and interpretive structure, Brian Pavlac covers the basic historical information that all educated adults should know. His joined terms "supremacies and diversities" develop major themes of conflict and creativity throughout history. "Supremacies" centers on the use of power to dominate societies, ranging from warfare to ideologies. Supremacy, Pavlac shows, seeks stability, order, and incorporation. "Diversities" encompasses the creative impulse that produces new ideas, as well as efforts of groups of people to define themselves as "different." Diversity creates change, opportunity, and individuality. These concepts of historical tension and change, whether applied to political, economic, technological, social, or cultural trends, offer a cohesive explanatory organization. The text is also informed by five other topical themes: technological innovation, migration and conquest, political and economic decision-making, church and state, and disputes about the meaning of life. The third edition has added new primary source projects, improved maps and illustrations to enhance the visual dimension, Written with flair, this easily accessible yet deeply knowledgeable text provides all the essentials for a course on Western civilization. Conceived as a seamless, affordable overview, not artificially boiled down from a lengthier text, it can be used as a standalone for a one-term course or combined with Volume 2 for two-term course.
List of Diagrams, Figures, Maps, Primary Source Projects, Sources on Families, Tables, and Timelines Acknowledgments How to Use This Book 1. History's Story There's Method What Is Truth? Primary Source Project 1: Thucydides versus von Ranke about the Aim of History 2. Wanderers and Settlers: The Ancient Middle East to 400 BC The Apes' Cousins Bound to the Soil The Price of Civilization Sources on Families: Law Code of Hammurabi The Rise and Fall of Practically All Middle Eastern Empires Primary Source Project 2: Xenophon versus Herodotus about Reputation 3. The Chosen People: Hebrews and Jews, 2000 BC to AD 135 Between and under Empires Primary Source Project 3: Sennacherib's Annalist versus Chronicles Writer about Divine Favor Bound by Law Sources on Family: Deuteronomy 4. Trial of the Hellenes: The Ancient Greeks, 1200 BC to AD 146 To the Sea The Political Animal Metamorphosis Primary Source Project 4: Athenians versus Melians about the Rules of War The Cultural Conquest Sources on Families: Plato, The Republic 5. Imperium Romanum: The Romans, 753 BC to AD 300 World Conquest in Self-Defense The Price of Power The Absolutist Solution Primary Source Project 5: Galgacus versus Agricola about Motivations for Battle The Roads to Knowledge Sources on Families: Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Augustus 6. The Revolutionary Rabbi: Christianity, the Roman Empire, and Islam, 4 BC to AD 1453 The Son of Man Sources on Families: Paul, First Epistle to Timothy The Cultural War Primary Source Project 6: Paul versus Pliny and Trajan about the Value of Christianity Roma Delenda Est Struggle for the Realm of Submission 7. From Old Rome to the New West: The Early Middle Ages, AD 500 to 1000 Goths in the Garden Primary Source Project 7: Bad Bishops versus Benedict about Moral Rules Sources on Families: Tacitus, Germania Charles in Charge The Cavalry to the Rescue 8. The Medieval Mele'e: The High and Later Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500 Return of the Kings Discipline and Domination Sources on Families: Jacobus de Voragine, "The Life of Saint Elizabeth" Plenty of Papal Power Primary Source Project 8: Gregory VII versus Henry IV about Church versus State The Age of Faith and Reason A New Estate Not the End of the World 9. Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation, 1400 to 1648 The Purse of Princes Man as the Measure Primary Source Project 9: Witch Hunter versus Confessor about Belief in Witches Heaven Knows Sources on Families: Martin Luther, Table Talk Fatal Beliefs God, Greed, and Glory Epilogue: Why Western Civilization? Timelines Common Abbreviations Glossary Index About the Author
