A Concise Survey of Western Civilization: Supremacies and Diversities throughout History

by Brian A. Pavlac

Overview

This lively text offers a brief history of Western civilization. Providing a focused narrative and interpretive structure, Pavlac uses the joined terms "supremacies and diversities" to develop themes of conflict and creativity. His easily accessible yet deeply knowledgeable book covers the basic information that all educated adults should know.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538112502
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/18/2019
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	582
Product dimensions:	7.09(w) x 10.25(h) x 1.21(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Brian A. Pavlac is professor of history at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he has served as chair of the department and a Herve A. LeBlanc Distinguished Service Professor.

Table of Contents

List of Diagrams, Figures, Maps, Primary Source Projects, Sources on Families, Tables, and Timelines ix

Acknowledgments xiii

How to Use This Book xv

1 History's Story 1

There's Method 1

What Is Truth? 8

Primary Source Project 1: Thucydides versus von Ranke about the Aim of History 15

2 Wanderers and Settlers: The Ancient Middle East to 400 BC 19

The Apes' Cousins 19

Bound to the Soil 25

The Price of Civilization 30

Sources on Families: Law Code of Hammurabi 37

The Rise and Fall of Practically All Middle Eastern Empires 38

Primary Source Project 2: Xenophon versus Herodotus about Reputation 48

3 The Chosen People: Hebrews and Jews, 2000 BC to AD 135 53

Between and under Empires 53

Primary Source Project 3: Sennacherib's Annalist versus Chronicles Writer about Divine Favor 56

Bound by Law 60

Sources on Family: Deuteronomy 65

4 Trial of the Hellenes: The Ancient Greeks, 1200 BC to AD 146 69

To the Sea 69

The Political Animal 72

Metamorphosis 77

Primary Source Project 4: Athenians versus Melians about the Rules of War 83

The Cultural Conquest 86

Sources on Families: Plato, The Republic 92

5 Imperium Romanum: The Romans, 753 BC to AD 300 95

World Conquest in Self-Defense 95

The Price of Power 101

The Absolutist Solution 104

Primary Source Project 5: Galgacus versus Agricola about Motivations for Battle 112

The Roads to Knowledge 114

Sources on Families: Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Augustus 117

6 The Revolutionary Rabbi: Christianity, the Roman Empire, and Islam, 4 BC to AD 1453 121

The Son of Man 121

Sources on Families: Paul, First Epistle to Timothy 125

The Cultural War 127

Primary Source Project 6: Paul versus Pliny and Trajan about the Value of Christianity 133

Roma Delenda Est 136

Struggle for the Realm of Submission 140

7 From Old Rome to the New West: The Early Middle Ages, AD 500 to 1000 145

Goths in the Garden 145

Primary Source Project 7: Bad Bishops versus Benedict about Moral Rules 152

Sources on Families: Tacitus, Germania 155

Charles in Charge 157

The Cavalry to the Rescue 162

8 The Medieval Melée: The High and Later Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500 169

Return of the Kings 169

Discipline and Domination 177

Sources on Families: Jacobus de Voragine, "The Life of Saint Elizabeth" 181

Plenty of Papal Power 184

Primary Source Project 8: Gregory VII versus Henry IV about Church versus State 189

The Age of Faith and Reason 192

A New Estate 198

Not the End of the World 204

9 Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation, 1400 to 1648 211

The Purse of Princes 211

Man as the Measure 219

Primary Source Project 9: Witch Hunter versus Confessor about Belief in Witches 225

Heaven Knows 229

Sources on Families: Martin Luther, Table Talk 234

Fatal Beliefs 235

God, Greed, and Glory 243

10 Liberation of Mind and Body: Early Modern Europe, 1543 to 1815 255

Lost in the Stars 255

From the Salons to the Streets 261

Sources on Families: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile, or On Education 265

The State Is He (or She) 268

(Prosperous) People Power 276

The Declaration of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity 285

Primary Source Project 10: Declaration of the Rights of Man versus Declaration of the Rights of Woman about Human Rights 290

Blood and Empires 292

11 Mastery of the Machine: The Industrial Revolution, 1764 to 1914 299

Facts of Factories 299

Life in the Jungle 305

Sources on Families: George Sand on the End of Her Marriage 310

Cleaning Up the Mess 312

For the Workers 319

Primary Source Project 11: Smiles versus Owen about the Good Lite 327

The Machinery of Nature 330

12 The Westerner's Burden: Imperialism and Nationalism, 1810 to 1918 337

"New and Improved" Imperialism 337

From Sea to Shining Sea 348

Nationalism's Curse 352

Sources on Families: Ethel Howard, Potsdam Princes 361

The Balkan Cauldron 363

The Great War 368

Primary Source Project 12: "In Flanders Fields" versus "Dulce et Decorum Est" about Death in War 374

13 Rejections of Democracy: The Interwar Years and World War II, 1917 to 1945 377

Decline of the West? 377

Russians in Revolt 384

Losing Their Grip 392

Fascist Fury 396

Hitler's Hatreds 401

Sources on Families: Joseph Goebbels, "German Womanhood" 406

The Roads to Global War 408

Primary Source Project 13: Hitler versus Franklin D. Roosevelt about the Just Society 417

14 A World Divided: The Early Cold War, 1945 to 1980 421

From Friends to Foes 421

Primary Source Project 14: Khrushchev versus Nixon about Competition 429

Making Money 431

Sources on Families: Shirley Chisholm, Speech on Equal Rights 438

To the Brink, Again and Again 440

Letting Go and Holding On 444

American Hegemon 450

The Uneasy Understanding 454

15 Into the Future: The Contemporary Era, 1980 to the Present 459

The Walls Come Down 459

Searching for Stability 464

Different Folks 469

Haves and Cannots 474

Sources on Families: Supreme Court of the United States, Obergefell v. Hodges 479

Values of Violence 482

The Walls Go Up Again 486

Primary Source Project 15: The European Central Bank versus the National Front about the EU 496

Epilogue: Why Western Civilization? 501

Timelines 509

Common Abbreviations 521

Glossary 523

Index 537

About the Author 563

What People are Saying About This

William A. Paquette

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.

From the Publisher

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.

Christopher M. Bellitto

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.

Editorial Reviews

Exceptionally well-written, engaging, and accessible. . . . Pavlac includes useful diagrams and charts throughout. . . that break down complex information into visual and easy-to-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 the book is one that students will read, become engaged with, and understand makes it a valuable resource to teachers of Western Civilization. (Previous Edition Praise)-- "Teaching History: A Journal of Methods"

The book's conciseness and reasonable cost are very attractive. For a single-semester course that spans the three millennia, I preferred this book to competing texts, which are just too long, with too many 'facts.' Pavlac's writing is also a plus. His informal tone and his skillful movement from paragraph to paragraph give his work a readability that my students like very much.(Previous Edition Praise)--Robert Good, Mercer University

This book is the way to go for a one-semester course: a text that's full, but not dense. It's well-informed and intelligently written, yet still accessible. The big-picture approach combined with guided questions keep students on track, while the writing is lively, anecdotal, and illustrative--a nice balance of the forest and trees. The concise nature of the text makes it particularly suitable for online or condensed semesters.(Previous Edition Praise)--Christopher M. Bellitto, Kean University

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. (Previous Edition Praise)--William A. Paquette, Tidewater Community College

From the Publisher

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: A Journal of Methods

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

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

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