A Concise Survey of Western Civilization
Supremacies and Diversities Throughout History
Published on 16. January 2011
Book
Hardback
464 pages
978-1-4422-0554-3 (ISBN)
Description
This engaging text offers a brief, readable description of our common Western heritage. Providing a tightly focused narrative and interpretive structure, Brian A. Pavlac covers the basic historical information that all educated adults should know. His joined terms "supremacies and diversities" develop major themes of conflict and creativity throughout history. "Supremacies" centers on the use of power to dominate societies, ranging from warfare to ideologies. Supremacy, Pavlac shows, seeks stability, order, and incorporation. "Diversities" encompasses the creative impulse that produces new ideas, as well as efforts of groups of people to define themselves as "different." Diversity creates change, opportunity, and individuality. These concepts of historical tension and change, whether applied to political, economic, technological, social, or cultural trends, offer a cohesive explanatory organization. The text is also informed by five other topical themes: technological innovation, migration and conquest, political and economic decision-making, church and state, and disputes about the meaning of life. Throughout, judicious "basic principles" present summaries of historical realities.
Written with flair, this easily accessible yet deeply knowledgeable text provides all the essentials for a course on Western civilization.
Written with flair, this easily accessible yet deeply knowledgeable text provides all the essentials for a course on Western civilization.
Reviews / Votes
This is an exceptionally well-written, engaging, and accessible text... Pavlac includes useful diagrams and charts throughout this text that break down complex information into visual and easy digest parts... Perhaps the most important attribute of A Concise History of Western Civilization is that this is a text that students would actually read and understand. For many history professors, the first and most fundamental struggle is getting students to read and furthermore to read critically. Thus, the fact that this text is one that students will read, become engaged with, and understand makes it a valuable resource to teachers of Western Civilization. Teaching History Written with the skill of a novelist, this book guides the reader step by step through the process of what a historian thinks, does, and interprets. Chapter content establishes the foundation for each future chapter with carefully selected questions, key-word definitions, and ideas in bold type. This is the best-written textbook on Western civilization that I have had the pleasure to read in thirty-five years of teaching. -- William A. Paquette, Tidewater Community College Professor Pavlac has come up with an effective comparative approach: what's new, what's different, what's changed, what's distinctive. This way of encountering Western civilization without drowning in details will produce students who are well-grounded for upper-division courses. -- Christopher M. Bellitto, Kean UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 265 mm
Width: 187 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
1125 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4422-0554-3 (9781442205543)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Brian A. Pavlac is the Herve A. LeBlanc Distinguished Service Professor and chair of the Department of History at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Content
Chapter 1: History's Story There's Method What Is Truth? Chapter 2: Wanderers and Settlers: The Ancient Middle East to 400 B.C. The Apes' Cousins Bound to the Soil The Price of Civilization The Rise and Fall of Practically All Middle Eastern Empires Chapter 3: The Chosen People: Hebrews and Jews, 2000 B.C. to A.D. 135 An Obscure History The Tie That Binds Chapter 4: Trial of the Hellenes: The Ancient Greeks, 1200 B.C. to A.D. 146 To the Sea The Political Animal Metamorphosis The Cultural Conquest Chapter 5: Imperium Romanum: The Romans, 753 B.C. to A.D. 300 World Conquest in Self-Defense The Price of Power The Absolutist Solution The Roads to Knowledge Chapter 6: The Revolutionary Rabbi: Christianity, the Roman Empire, and Islam, 4 B.C. to A.D. 1453 The Son of Man The Cultural War Roma Delenda Est Struggle for the Realm of Submission Chapter 7: From Old Rome to the New West: The Early Middle Ages, A.D. 500 to 1000 Goths in the Garden Charles in Charge The Cavalry to the Rescue Chapter 8: The Medieval Melee: The High and Later Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500 Return of the Kings Discipline and Domination Plenty of Papal Power The Age of Faith and Reason A New Estate Not the End of the World Chapter 9: Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation, 1400 to 1648 The Purse of Princes Man as the Measure Heaven Knows Fatal Beliefs God, Greed, and Glory Chapter 10: Liberation of Mind and Body: Early Modern Europe, 1543 to 1815 Lost in the Stars From the Salons to the Streets The State Is He (or She) (Prosperous) People Power The Declaration of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity Blood and Empires Chapter 11: Mastery of the Machine: The Industrial Revolution, 1764 to 1914 Facts of Factories Life in the Big City Cleaning Up the Mess For the Workers The Machinery of Nature Chapter 12: The Westerner's Burden: Imperialism and Nationalism, 1810 to 1918 "New and Improved" Imperialism From Sea to Shining Sea Nationalism's Curse The Balkan Cauldron The Great War Chapter 13: Rejections of Democracy: The Interwar Years and World War II, 1918 to 1945 Decline of the West? Russians in Revolt Losing Their Grip Fascist Fury Hitler's Hatreds The Roads to Global War Chapter 14: A World Divided: The Early Cold War, 1945 to 1980 From Friends to Foes Making Money To the Brink, Again and Again Letting Go and Holding On American Hegemony The Uneasy Understanding Chapter 15: Into the Future: The Contemporary Era, 1980 to the Present A Surprise Ending Searching for Stability An Unexpected Revival Haves and Cannots Values of Violence Epilogue: Why Western Civilization?