The West: Encounters & Transformations, Combined Volume / Edition 3

by Brian Levack, Edward Muir, Michael Maas, Meredith Veldman

Overview

Designed for introductory-level survey courses in the History of Western Civilization.

The West: Encounters & Transformations takes a new approach to telling the story of Western civilization.

Rather than looking at Western civilization only as the history of Europe from ancient times to the present, this groundbreaking book examines the changing nature of the West—how the definition of the West has evolved and has been transformed throughout history. It explores the ways Western civilization has changed as a result of cultural encounters with different beliefs, ideas, technologies, and peoples, both outside the West and within it. Presenting a balanced treatment of political, social, religious, and cultural history, this text emphasizes the ever-shifting boundaries of the geographic and cultural realm of the West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780132132848
Publisher:	Pearson
Publication date:	03/25/2010
Series:	MyHistoryLab Series
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	1080
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Brian Levack received his Ph.D. from Yale and is the John Green Regents Professor in History at University of Texas at Austin. The winner of several teaching awards, Levack teaches a wide variety of courses on British and European history, legal history, and the history of witchcraft. His books include The Civil Lawyers in England, 1603–1641: A Political Study (1973), The Formation of the British State: England, Scotland and the Union, 1603–1707 (1987), The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (3rd edition, 2006), and Witch-Hunting in Scotland: Law, Politics, and Religion (2008).

Edward Muir received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, where he specialized in the Italian Renaissance and did archival research in Venice and Florence, Italy. He is now the Clarence L. Ver Steeg Professor in the Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University and former chair of the history department. At Northwestern he has won several teaching awards. His books include Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (1981), Mad Blood Stirring: Vendetta in Renaissance Italy (1993 and 1998), Ritual in Early Modern Europe (1997 and 2005), and The Culture Wars of the Late Renaissance: Skeptics, Libertines, and Opera (2007).

Meredith Veldman received a Ph.D. in modern European history, with a concentration in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain, from Northwestern University. As an Associate Professor of history and award-winning instructor at Louisiana State University, she teaches courses in nineteenth- and twentieth-century British history and twentieth-century Europe, as well as the second half of “Western Civ.” Veldman is also the author of Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain: Romantic Protest, 1945—1980 (1994).

Table of Contents

In this Section:

1) Brief Table of Contents

2) Full Table of Contents

1) Brief Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000—1150 B.C.E.

Chapter 2: The Age of Empires: The International Bronze Age and Its Aftermath, ca. 1500—550 B.C.E.

Chapter 3: Greek Civilization

Chapter 4: Hellenistic Civilization

Chapter 5: The Roman Republic
Chapter 6: Enclosing the West: The Early Roman Empire and Its Neighbors, 31 B.C.E.—235 C.E.

Chapter 7: Late Antiquity: The Age of New Boundaries, 250—600

Chapter 8: Medieval Empires and Borderlands: Byzantium and Islam

Chapter 9: Medieval Empires and Borderlands: The Latin West

Chapter 10: Medieval Civilization: The Rise of Western Europe

Chapter 11: The Medieval West in Crisis

Chapter 12: The Italian Renaissance and Beyond: The Politics of Culture
Chapter 13: The West and the World: The Significance of Global Encounters, 1450—1650
Chapter 14: The Reformations of Religion
Chapter 15: The Age of Confessional Division

Chapter 16: Absolutism and State Building in Europe, 1618—1715

Chapter 17: The Scientific Revolution

Chapter 18: The West and the World: Empire, Trade, and War, 1650—1815

Chapter 19: Eighteenth-Century Society and Culture
Chapter 20: The Age of the French Revolution, 1789—1815

Chapter 21: The Industrial Revolution

Chapter 22: Ideological Conflict and National Unification, 1815—1871

Chapter 23: The Coming of Mass Politics: Industrialization, Emancipation, and Instability, 1870—1914

Chapter 24: The West and the World: Cultural Crisis and the New Imperialism, 1870—1914

Chapter 25: The First World War
Chapter 26: Reconstruction, Reaction, and Continuing Revolution: The 1920s and 1930s

Chapter 27: World War II

Chapter 28: Redefining the West After World War II

Chapter 29: The West in the Contemporary Era: New Encounters and Transformations

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2) Full Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Beginnings of Civilization, 10,000—1150 B.C.E.
Defining Civilization, Defining Western Civilization
Mesopotamia: Kingdoms, Empires, and Conquests
Egypt: The Empire of the Nile

Chapter 2: The Age of Empires: The International Bronze Age and Its Aftermath, ca. 1500—550 B.C.E.
The Dynamism of the International Bronze Age
Recovery and Rebuilding: Empires and Societies in the Aftermath of the International Bronze Age
The Civilization of the Hebrews

Chapter 3: Greek Civilization
Greece Rebuilds, 1100—479 B.C.E.
The Greek Encounter with the Persian Empire
The Classical Age of Greece, 479—336 B.C.E.

Chapter 4: Hellenistic Civilization
The Impact of Alexander the Great
Hellenism in the East and West
Hellenistic Society and Culture
Hellenistic Philosophy and Science

Chapter 5: The Roman Republic
The Nature of the Roman Republic
Roman Territorial Expansion
The Culture of the Roman Republic
Social Life in Republican Rome
The End of the Roman Republic

Chapter 6: Enclosing the West: The Early Roman Empire and Its Neighbors, 31 B.C.E.—235 C.E.
The Imperial Center
Life in the Roman Provinces: Assimilation, Resistance, and Romanization
The Frontier and Beyond
Society and Culture in the Imperial Age

Chapter 7: Late Antiquity: The Age of New Boundaries, 250—600
Crisis and Recovery in the Third Century
Toward a Christian Empire
New Christian Communities and Identities
The Breakup of the Roman Empire

Chapter 8: Medieval Empires and Borderlands: Byzantium and Islam
Byzantium: The Survival of the Roman Empire
The New World of Islam

Chapter 9: Medieval Empires and Borderlands: The Latin West
The Birth of Latin Christendom
The Carolingians
Invasions and Recovery in the Latin West
The West in the East: The Crusades

Chapter 10: Medieval Civilization: The Rise of Western Europe
Two Worlds: Manors and Cities
The Consolidation of Roman Catholicism
Strengthening the Center of the West
Medieval Culture: The Search for Understanding

Chapter 11: The Medieval West in Crisis
A Time of Death
A Cold Wind from the East
Economic Depression and Social Turmoil
An Age of Warfare
A Troubled Church and the Demand for Religious Comfort
The Culture of Loss

Chapter 12: The Italian Renaissance and Beyond: The Politics of Culture
The Cradle of the Renaissance: The Italian City-States
The Influence of Ancient Culture
The Early Modern European State System

Chapter 13: The West and the World: The Significance of Global Encounters, 1450—1650
Europeans in Africa
Europeans in the Americas
Europeans in Asia
The Beginnings of the Global System

Chapter 14: The Reformations of Religion
Causes of the Reformation
The Lutheran Reformation
The Diversity of Protestantism
The Catholic Reformation

Chapter 15: The Age of Confessional Division
The Peoples of Early Modern Europe
Disciplining the People
Hunting Witches
The Confessional States
States and Confessions in Eastern Europe

Chapter 16: Absolutism and State Building in Europe, 1618—1715
The Nature of Absolutism
The Absolutist State in France and Spain
Absolutism and State Building in Central and Eastern Europe
Resistance to Absolutism in England and the Dutch Republic

Chapter 17: The Scientific Revolution
The Discoveries and Achievements of the Scientific Revolution
The Search for Scientific Knowledge
The Causes of the Scientific Revolution
The Intellectual Consequences of the Scientific Revolution
Humans and the Natural World

Chapter 18: The West and the World: Empire, Trade, and War, 1650—1815
European Empires in the Americas and Asia
Warfare in Europe, North America, and Asia
The Atlantic World
Encounters Between Europeans and Asians
The Crisis of Empire and the Atlantic Revolutions

Chapter 19: Eighteenth-Century Society and Culture
The Aristocracy
Challenges to Aristocratic Dominance
The Enlightenment
The Impact of the Enlightenment

Chapter 20: The Age of the French Revolution, 1789—1815
The First French Revolution, 1789—1791
The French Republic, 1792—1799
Cultural Change in France during the Revolution
The Napoleonic Era, 1799—1815
The Legacy of the French Revolution

Chapter 21: The Industrial Revolution
The Nature of the Industrial Revolution
Conditions Favoring Industrial Growth
The Spread of Industrialization
The Effects of Industrialization
Industry, Trade, and Empire

Chapter 22: Ideological Conflict and National Unification, 1815—1871
New Ideologies in the Early Nineteenth Century
Ideological Encounters in Europe, 1815—1848
National Unification in Europe and America, 1848—1871
International Conflict and Domestic Politics, 1853—1871

Chapter 23: The Coming of Mass Politics: Industrialization, Emancipation, and Instability, 1870—1914
Economic Transformation
Defining the Nation
The New Mass Politics
The Women’s Revolt

Chapter 24: The West and the World: Cultural Crisis and the New Imperialism, 1870—1914
Scientific Transformations
Cultural Crisis: The Fin-de-Siècle and the Birth of Modernism
The New Imperialism

Chapter 25: The First World War
The Origins of the First World War
The Experience of Total War
The Home Fronts
War and Revolution

Chapter 26: Reconstruction, Reaction, and Continuing Revolution: The 1920s and 1930s
Cultural Despair and Desire
The Appeal of Authoritarianism and the Rise of Fascism
Nazism and the Defeat of Democracy in Germany
The Soviet Alternative and the Democracies’ Response
The Reconstruction of Gender
The West and the World: Imperialism in the Interwar Era

Chapter 27: World War II
The Coming of War
Europe at War, 1939—1941
The World at War, 1941—1945
The Wars Within the War
The Home Front: The Other Wars

Chapter 28: Redefining the West After World War II
A Dubious Peace, 1945—1949
The West and the World: Decolonization and the Cold War
The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the 1950s and 1960s
The West: Consensus, Consumption, and Culture

Chapter 29: The West in the Contemporary Era: New Encounters and Transformations
Economic Stagnation and Political Change: The 1970s and 1980s
Revolution in the East
In the Wake of Revolution
Rethinking the West

Glossary
Suggestions for Further Reading
Notes
Photo Credits
Index