Western Civilization, A Brief History, 11th Edition

Marvin Perry

Copyright 2016
{{checkPublicationMessage('Published', '2015-01-01T00:00:00+0000')}}

Starting At £50.39 See pricing and ISBN options

Instructor Next Steps

Students: Buy now

Western Civilization, A Brief History 11th Edition by Marvin Perry

Quick Navigation

Overview
Meet the Author
What's New
Features
Table of Contents
Pricing

Overview

Marvin Perry's WESTERN CIVILIZATION: A BRIEF HISTORY, Eleventh Edition, maintains a firm grounding in political history, while covering intellectual history (particularly the significance of ideas and contributions) to a greater and deeper extent than any other text for the course. The accessible writing and flexible approach make this abridged version of WESTERN CIVILIZATION: IDEAS, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY an appealing text for instructors and students of the Western Civilization survey course. Updated with recent scholarship, the Eleventh Edition retains many popular features, including comparative timelines, full-color art essays, and primary source excerpts in each chapter. New technology resources, including MindTap—featuring the interactive MindTap Reader eBook and Aplia assignments—make learning more engaging and instruction more efficient. Available in the following options: WESTERN CIVILIZATION: A BRIEF HISTORY, Eleventh Edition (Chapters 1—22); Volume I: To 1789 (Chapters 1—10); Volume II: From the 1400s (Chapters 8—22).

Meet the Authors

{{collapseContainerClosed['meet-the-author'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

Marvin Perry

Marvin Perry, now retired, taught history at Baruch College, City University of New York. He has published several successful Cengage Learning texts, including WESTERN CIVILIZATION: IDEAS, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY (senior author and general editor); WESTERN CIVILIZATION: A BRIEF HISTORY; the leading Western Civilization reader, SOURCES OF THE WESTERN TRADITION; AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE; SOURCES OF EUROPEAN HISTORY SINCE 1900 (senior editor); HUMANITIES IN THE WESTERN TRADITION (senior author and general editor); and WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE: A CONCISE HISTORY. His scholarly work includes ARNOLD TOYNBEE AND THE WESTERN TRADITION (1996); ANTISEMITISM: MYTH AND HATE FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT (coauthor, 2002); ANTISEMITIC MYTHS: A HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY ANTHOLOGY (coeditor, 2008); and THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM: AN ANTHOLOGY (coeditor, 2008). Dr. Perry's scholarly work focuses on the history of ideas.

What's New

{{collapseContainerClosed['whats-new'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

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.

Features

{{collapseContainerClosed['features'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

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.

{{collapseContainerClosed['table-of-contents'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

Part I: THE ANCIENT WORLD: FOUNDATION OF THE WEST TO A.D. 500.
1. The Ancient Near East: The First Civilizations.
2. The Hebrews: A New View of God and the Individual.
3. The Greeks: From Myth to Reason.
4. Rome: From City-State to World Empire.
5. Early Christianity: A World Religion.
Part II: THE MIDDLE AGES: THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 500—1400.
6. The Rise of Europe: Fusion of Classical, Christian, and Germanic Traditions.
7. The Flowering and Dissolution of Medieval Civilization.
Part III: THE RISE OF MODERNITY: FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT 1350—1789.
8. Transition to the Modern Age: Renaissance and Reformation.
9. Political and Economic Transformation: National States, Overseas Expansion, Commercial Revolution.
10. Intellectual Transformation: The Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment.
Part IV: THE MODERN WEST: PROGRESS AND BREAKDOWN 1789—1914.
11. The Era of the French Revolution: Affirmation of Liberty and Equality.
12. The Industrial Revolution: The Transformation of Society.
13. Thought and Culture in the Early Nineteenth Century.
14. Surge of Liberalism and Nationalism: Revolution, Counterrevolution, and Unification.
15. Thought and Culture in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Realism, Positivism, Darwinism, and Social Criticism.
16. Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century: Modernization, Nationalism, Imperialism.
17. Modern Consciousness: New Views of Nature, Human Nature, and the Arts.
Part V: WESTERN CIVILIZATION IN CRISIS: WORLD WARS AND TOTALITARIANISM 1914—1945.
18. World War I: The West in Despair.
19. An Era of Totalitarianism.
20. World War II: Western Civilization in the Balance.
Part VI: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD.
21. Europe After World War II: Recovery and Realignment, 1945—1989.
22. The Troubled Present.