Civilization in the West blends social and political history into a fascinating narrative that brings history to life. The authors tell a compelling story of Western Civilization that is enhanced by an image-based approach. Pictorial chapter openers draw students in by illustrating a dominant theme of the chapter and exploring the dramatic impression each image makes in reinforcing that theme. The presentation of geography guides students around the changing contours of the West through both standard maps and Geographic Tours of Europe. The greater number of maps and tours combine to make this text the strongest possible program for teaching historical geography (151 total maps, as compared to Chambers, the second highest, at 106). The addition of Discovering Western Civilization Online (new end-of-chapter website URLs) makes this the first Western Civilization book to date to include these resources.

Table of Contents:
(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with Questions for Review, Suggestions for Further Reading, and Discovering Western Civilization Online.) 1. The First Civilizations. The Idea of Civilization. Before Civilization. Paintings: A Cultural Record. Social Organization, Agriculture, and Religion. Mesopotamia: Between the Two Rivers. The Ramparts of Uruk. Tools: Technology and Writing. Gods and Mortals in Mesopotamia. Sargon and Mesopotamian Expansion. Hammurabi and the Old Babylonian Empire. The Gift of the Nile. Tending the Cattle of God. Democratization of the Afterlife. The Egyptian Empire. Religious and Royal Consolidation under Akhenaten. Between Two Worlds. The Hebrew Alternative. A King Like All the Nations. Exile. Nineveh and Babylon. Special Feature: Discovering the Pharaohs. Documents. The Code of Hammurabi. A Homesick Egyptian. The Kingdom of Israel. 2. Early Greece, 2500-500 B.C.E. Hecuba and Achilles. Greece in the Bronze Age to 700 B.C.E. Islands of Peace. Cretan Society and Religion. Mainland of War. The Dark Age. A New Material Culture. The Evidence of Homer. Archaic Greece, 700-500 B.C.E. Ethnos and Polis. Technology of Writing and Warfare. Colonists and Tyrants. Gender and Power. Gods and Mortals. Myth and Reason. Investigation and Speculation. Art and the Individual. A Tale of Three Cities. Wealthy Corinth. Government under the Tyrants. Martial Sparta. Social Control. Democratic Athens. Athenian Tyranny. The Coming of Persia and the End of the Archaic Age. Special Feature: The Agony of Athletics. Documents. Hector and Andromache. All Things Change. Two Faces of Tyranny. 3. Classical and Hellenistic Greece, 500-100 B.C.E. Alexander at Issus. War and Politics in the Fifth Century B.C.E. The Persian Wars. Themopylae and Salamis. The Athenian Empire. Private and Public Life in Athens. Pericles and Athens. The Peloponnesian War. Athenian Culture in the Hellenic Age. The Examined Life. Understanding the Past. Athenian Drama. The Human Image. From City-States to Macedonian Empire, 404-323 B.C.E. Politics After the Peloponnesian War. Philosophy and the Polis. The Rise of Macedon. The Empire of Alexander the Great. Binding Together an Empire. The Hellenistic World. Urban Life and Culture. Women in Public Life. Alexandria. Hellenistic Literature. Art and Architecture. Hellenistic Philosophy. Mathematics and Science. Special Feature: Technology and Innovation. Documents. The Two Faces of Athenian Democracy. Socrates the Gadfly. Greeks and Barbarians. Alexander Calls a Halt. 4. Early Rome and the Roman Republic, 800-31 B.C.E. Eternal Rome. The Western Mediterranean to 509 b.c.e. Merchants of Baal. The Gods of Carthage. The Western Greeks. Italy's First Civilization. An Archaic Society. From City to Empire, 509-146 B.C.E. Latin Rome. Etruscan Rome. Rome and Italy. Rome and the Mediterranean. Republican Civilization. Farmers and Soldiers. The Roman Family. Social Effects of Expansion. Roman Religion. Republican Letters. The Crisis of Roman Virtue. Special Feature: Hannibal's Elephants. Documents. The Twelve Tables. Polybius Describes the Sack of New Carthage. Cato's Slaves. 5. Imperial Rome, 27 b.c.e.-c.e. 192. Competitive Consumption. The Price of Empire. Winners and Losers. Slave Revolts. Provincial Revolts. Optimates and Populares. The Gracchi. The End of the Republic. The Crisis of Government. The Civil Wars. The Good Life. Poetry, Art and Morality. The Augustan Age and the Pax Romana. The Empire Renewed. Divine Augustus. Poetry and Patronage. Augustus's Successors. Breaking the Peace. Administering the Empire. Religions from the East. The Origins of Christianity. Spreading the Faith. Christian Institutions. Geographical Tour: A Tour of the Empire. The Western Provinces. The Eastern Provinces. The Culture of Antonine Rome. Special Feature: Living in Rome. Documents. The Reforms of Tiberius Gracchus. Cicero on Justice and Reason. Peter Announces the Good News. 6. The Transformation of the Classical World. A Bride's Trousseau. The Crisis of the Third Century. Enrich the Army and Scorn the Rest. An Empire on the Defensive. The Barbarian Menace. Roman Influence in the Barbarian World. The Empire Restored. Diocletian the God-Emperor. A Militarized Society. Constantine the Emperor of God. The Triumph of Christianity. Imperial Christianity. Divinity, Humanity, and Salvation. The Call of the Desert. Monastic Communities. Solitaries and Hermits. A Parting of the Ways. The Barbarization of the West. The New Barbarian Kingdoms. The Hellenization of the East. Special Feature: The Stainless Star of Wisdom's Discipline. Documents. Tacitus on the Germans. Religious Toleration and Persecution. Love in the Two Cities. 7. The Classical Legacy in the East: Byzantium and Islam. From Temple to Mosque. The Byzantines. Justinian and the Creation of the Byzantine State. Emperors and Individuals. Families and Villages. A Foretaste of Heaven. Iconoclasm. The Rise of Islam. Arabia Before the Prophet. Muhammad, Prophet of God. The Triumph of Islam. The Spread of Islam. Authority and Government in Islam. Umayyad and 'Abbasid Calphates. Islamic Civilization. The Byzantine Apogee and Decline 1000-1453. The Disintegration of the Empire. The Conquests of Constantinople and Baghdad. Special Feature: Harems and Gynaiconites. Documents. The Justinian Code. The Qur'an. An Arab's View of Western Medicine. 8. The West in the Early Middle Ages, 500-900. The Chapel at the Waters. The Making of the Barbarian Kingdoms, 500-750. The Ostrogoths: From Success to Extinction. The Visigoths: Intolerance and Destruction. The Anglo-Saxons: From Pagan Conquerors to Christian Missionaries. The Franks: An Enduring Legacy. Living in the New Europe. Creating the European Peasantry. Rural Households. Creating the European Aristocracy. Aristocratic Lifestyle. Governing Europe. The Carolingian Achievement. Charlemagne and the Renewal of the West. The Carolingian Renaissance. Carolingian Government. Carolingian Art. Geographical Tour: Europe in the Ninth Century. England. Scandinavia. The Slavic World. Muslim Spain. After the Carolingians: From Empire to Lordships. Special Feature: The Jews in the Early Middle Ages. ABHEADS = Documents. Two Missionaries. From Slave to Queen. Charlemagne and the Arts. 9. The High Middle Ages. The Royal Tombs at Fontevrault. The Countryside. The Peasantry: Serfs and Freemen. The Aristocracy: Fighters and Breeders. Aristocratic Education. The Church: Saints and Monks. Crusaders: Soldiers of God. The Idea of the Crusade. Medieval Towns. Italian Cities. Northern Towns. The Fairs of Champagne. Urban Culture. The Invention of the State. The Universal States: Empire and Papacy. The Nation-States: France and England. Special Feature: The Paris of Philip Augustus. Documents. Visions like a Flame. Word from the Fair. Saint Francis of Assisi on Humility and Poverty. The Great Charter. 10. The Later Middle Ages, 1300-1500. Webs of Stone and Blood. Politics as a Family Affair. The Struggle for Central Europe. A Hundred Years of War. Life and Death in the Later Middle Ages. Dancing With Death. The Plague of Insurrection. Living and Dying in Medieval Towns. Poverty and Crime. The Spirit of the Later Middle Ages. The Crisis of the Papacy. Discerning the Spirit of God. Heresy and Revolt. William of Ockham and the Spirit of Truth. Vernacular Literature and the Individual. New Voices. Special Feature: A Room of One's Own. Documents. The Black Death in Florence. A Letter to Babbo. A Woman Before the Inquisition. 11. The Italian Renaissance. A Civic Procession. Renaissance Society. The Environment. Production and Consumption. The Experience of Life. The Quality of Life. Renaissance Art. An Architect, a Sculptor, and a Painter. Renaissance Style. Michelangelo. Renaissance Ideals. Humanists and the Liberal Arts. Machiavelli and Politics. The Politics of the Italian City-States. The Five Powers. Venice: A Seaborne Empire. Florence: Spinning Cloth into Gold. The End of Italian Hegemony, 1450-1527. Special Feature: The Fall of Constantinople. Documents. On the Family. The Renaissance Man. The Lion and the Fox. The Siege of Constantinople. 12. The European Empires. Ptolemy's World. European Encounters. A Passage to India. Mundus Novus. The Spanish Conquests. The Legacy of the Encounters. Geographical Tour: Europe in 1500. Eastern Boundaries. Central Europe. The West. The Formation of States. Eastern Configurations. The Western Powers. The Dynastic Struggles. Power and Glory. The Italian Wars. Special Feature: Isabella of Castile. Documents. A Momentous Discovery. The Halls of Montezuma. Last Words. The Kingdom of France. 13. The Reform of Religion. Sola Scriptura. The Intellectual Reformation. The Print Revolution. Christian Humanism. The Humanist Movement. The Wit of Erasmus. The Lutheran Reformation. The Spark of Reform. Martin Luther's Faith. Lutheranism. The Spread of Lutheranism. The Protestant Reformation. Geneva and Calvin. The English Reformation. The Reformation of the Radicals. The Catholic Reformation. The Spiritual Revival. Loyola's Pilgrimage. The Counter-Reformation. The Empire Strikes Back. Special Feature: The Reformation and the War of the Common Man. Documents. A Dutch Wit. Luther on Marriage. The Eternal Decree. Heavenly Vision. 14. Europe at War, 1555-1648. The Massacre of the Innocents. The Crisis of the Western States. The French Wars of Religion. One King, Two Faiths. The World of Philip II. The Burgundian Inheritance. The Revolt of the Netherlands. The Struggles in Eastern Europe. Kings and Diets in Poland. Muscovy's Time of Troubles. The Rise of Sweden. The Thirty Years' War 1618-48. Bohemia Revolts. The War Widens. The Long Quest for Peace. Special Feature: The Monstrous Regiment of Women. Documents. Catholics and Huguenots. Cannibals. War Is Hell. Fire and Sword. 15. The Experiences of Life in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1650. Haymaking. Economic Life. Rural Life. Town Life. Economic Change. Social Life. Social Constructs. Social Structure. Social Change. Peasant Revolts. Private Life. The Family. Communities. Popular Beliefs. Special Feature: Sex and the Married Man. Documents. Living by One's Wits. The Peasants' Revolt. A Feminine Perspective. The Devil's Due. 16. The Royal State in the Seventeenth Century. Fit for a King. The Rise of the Royal State. Divine Kings. The Court and the Courtiers. The Drive to Centralize Government. The Taxing Demands of War. The Crises of the Royal State. The Need to Resist. The Right to Resist. The English Civil Wars. The English Revolutions. The Zenith of the Royal State. The Nature of Absolute Monarchy. Absolutism in the East. The Origins of French Absolutism. Louis le Grand. Special Feature: "King Charles's Head". Documents. A Glimpse of a King. A Short, Sharp Shock. Fathers Know Best. A Close Shave. Credits. Index.