Sources of the West presents a well-balanced selection of readings that integrate coverage of social, economic, religious, and cultural history within a traditional, political framework. The text includes constitutional documents, political theory, philosophy, imaginative literature, and social description that raise significant issues for classroom discussions or lectures. By reading the voices of the past, students can connect them to the present; learn to understand and respect other cultures; and think critically about history.

Table of Contents:
*New sources are asterisked. THE ORIGINS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND THE CLASSICAL WORLD. Creation Epics.  1. The Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2000 B.C.).  2. The Creation Epic (ca. 2000 B.C.).  3. The Book of Genesis (ca. 10th-6th century B.C.).  4. Hesiod, Works and Days (ca. 700 B.C.). The Ancient Near East.  5. Code of Hammurabi (early 18th century B.C.).  6. The Book of the Dead (ca. 16th century B.C.).  7. The Book of Exodus (ca. 10th-6th century B.C.).  8. The Book of Isaiah (ca. 10th-6th century B.C.). Ancient and Classical Greece.  9.Homer, Iliad (9th-8th century B.C.). 10. Sappho of Lesbos , Poems (ca. 600 B.C.). 11. Herodotus, History (ca. 450 B.C.). 12. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (ca. 400 B.C.). 13. Xenophon, The Spartan Constitution (ca. 360 B.C.). 14. Plato, Apology (399 B.C.). 15. Plato, The Republic (ca. 327 B.C.). 16. Aristotle, Politics (4th century B.C.). The Roman World. *17. Polybius, History (ca. 150 B.C.) 18. Cicero , The Trial of Aulus Cluentius Habitus (66 B.C.). 19. Virgil, Aeneid (30-19 B.C.). 20. Juvenal, Satires (ca. A.D. 116). 21. Plutarch, The Life of Cato the Elder (ca. A.D. 116). 22. Suetonius, The Life of Augustus (ca. A.D. 122). 23. The Sermon on the Mount (ca. A.D. 28-35). 24. St. Paul, Epistle to the Romans (ca. A.D. 57). MEDIEVAL EUROPE. The Early Middle Ages. 25. Tacitus, Germania (98). 26. Eusebius, In Praise of Constantine (336). 27. Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (413-46). 28. Benedict of Nursia, Rule of Saint Benedict (ca. 535-540). 29. The Burgundian Code (ca. 474). 30. Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks (ca. 581-591). 31. Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of England (731). 32. Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne (ca. 829-836). Islam and the Eastern Empire. 33. Justinian, Code (529-565). 34. Procopius, Secret History (ca. 560). 35. The Koran (7th century). *36. Michael Psellus, Chronographia (ca 1075) 37. Ibn Al-Qalanisi, The Damascus Chronicle (ca. 1150). The High Middle Ages. 38. Feudal Documents (11th-13th centuries). 39. Bernard of Angers, Miracles of St. Foy (ca. 1010). 40. Flucher of Chartres, The First Crusade and the Siege of Jerusalem (1101). 41. The Song of Roland. (ca. 1100). 42. Marie de France, The Lay of the Were-Wolf. 43. Magna Carta. 44. Francis of Assisi, Admonitions (ca. 1220). 45. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (1266-1273). 46. Dante, The Divine Comedy (ca. 1320). 47. Catherine of Siena, Letters (1376). 48. Christine de Pisan, The Book of the City of Ladies (ca. 1405). 49. Margaret Paston, Letters (1441-1448). 50. Witchcraft Documents (15th century). RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION.  51. Francesco Petrarca, Letters (ca. 1372). 52. Leon Battista Alberti, On the Family (1435-1444) 53. Giorgio Vasari, The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (1550). 54. Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (1513). 55. Desiderius Erasmus, In Praise of Folly (1509). 56. Sir Thomas More, Utopia (1516). The New Worlds. 57. Christopher Columbus, Letter from the First Voyage (1493). 58. Ludovico di Varthema, Travels (ca. 1508). *59. Gommes de Zurara, Chronicle of Guinea (1453) 60. Bartolomé de Las Cases, Apologetic History of the Indies (1566). 61. Bernard Diaz, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (1552-1568). 62. Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza, The History of the Great and Mightie Kingdom of China (1585). Religious Reform. 63. Martin Luther. The Freedom of a Christian (1520) and Marriage and Celibacy (1566). 64. John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion (1534) and Catechism (ca. 1540). 65. Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises (1548). 66. Teresa of Avila, The Life of Saint Teresa (1611). The Early Modern World. 67. Anonymous, Lazarillo de Tormes (1554). 68. The Twelve Articles of the Peasants of Swabia (1524) and Martin Luther, Admonition to Peace (1525). 69. Marguerite de Navarre, Heptameron (1558). 70. Magdalena and Balthasar Paumgartner, Letters (1592-1596). 71. Anonymous, The Debate About Women: Hic Mulier and Haec Vir (1620). THE ANCIENT REGIME. The Wars of Religion. 72. Henry IV, The Edict of Nantes (1598). 73. Cardinal Richelieu, The Political Testament (1638). 74. Hans von Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus (1669). Subjects and Sovereigns. 75. James I, True Law of a Free Monarchy (1598). 76. Philippe Duplessis-Mornay, A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants (1579). 77. Sir William Clarke, The Putney Debates (1647). 78. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651). 79. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1689). *80. Molière, The Would-Be Gentleman (1670) 81. Duc de Saint-Simon, Memoirs (1694-1723). Acknowledgments.   Photo Credits.