Western Civilization, A Brief History

Marvin Perry's WESTERN CIVILIZATION is the premier text to use for those interested in teaching intellectual history.

Each chapter has an integrated excerpt of a primary source—with an introductory essay and questions for analysis—to help students interpret and analyze primary source documents.

Two full-color illustrated art essays appear in the book to help students interpret and analyze visual sources.

Pedagogy (including Focus Questions at the beginning of the chapter and Questions for Analysis in the primary source features) has been updated to be more thought provoking.

Profiles, which have been revised to present a richer and broader range of significant historical figures, include more ordinary people, minorities, and women.

New primary source features include an excerpt from the writings of Adelard of Bath in which he urges investigating nature (Ch. 7), excerpts from a work of Benjamin Constant that illustrates emerging liberalism (Ch. 13), and Carl Schurz's description of the revolutionary excitement in Berlin in 1848 (Ch. 14).

New, revised, and expanded content discusses the significance of Greek politics for the Founding Fathers of the U.S. (Ch. 3); the Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity's appeal in the Roman world, particularly among women (Ch. 5); the Koran, Islamic interpretations of jihad, and Muslim science (Ch. 6); Napoleon's attitude towards women (Ch. 11); the condition of the working class and the fight for women's suffrage in France (Ch. 16); World War I, including how the war affected women (Ch. 18); the ordeal faced by German Jews in the new Nazi regime (Ch. 19); and war criminals in World War II (Ch. 20).

Chapters 21 and 22 have been heavily revised, with updated scholarship that covers new historiography surrounding the Cold War, the treatment of terrorism, the strife in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Arab Spring. A new section, “Our Global Age: Promise and Problems,” has been added to Chapter 22, and the Epilogue, “Reaffirming the Core Values of the Western Tradition,” is now the concluding section of that chapter.