The West

Chapter 1: The Birth of Civilization

• • Key Question: How do environments shape human communities and human communities alter environments?
• • The Evolution of the Prehistoric Cultures
• • The Archaic States
• • The Origin of Civilization in Mesopotamia: Sumer
• • The Rise of Civilization in Egypt

Chapter 2: The Rise of Empires and the Beginning of the Iron Age

• • Key Question: Does civilization promote or intensify divisions among peoples?
• • The Transition States
• • Imperial Egypt: The New Kingdom
• • The Indo-Europeans and the Clash of Empires
• • The Bible and History

Chapter 3: Aegean Civilizations

• • Key Question: When does civilization in the West become “Western” civilization?
• • Minoan Mentors
• • The Mycenaeans, Greece’s First Civilization
• • The Aegean Dark Age
• • The Hellenic Era
• • The Rise of the Mainland Powers
• • The Persian Wars: Crucible of a Civilization

Chapter 4: The Hellenic Era

• • Key Question: What did the Greeks contribute to the development of modern civilization?
• • Persian Wars as Catalyst
• • The Peloponnesian War
• • Intellectual and Artistic Life in the Polis

Chapter 5: The Hellenistic Era and the Rise of Rome

• • Key Question: What circumstances are likely to undermine governments by the people?
• • The Hellenistic Era
• • The Origin of Rome
• • The Roman Republic
• • Rome’s Civil War

Chapter 6: Rome’s Empire and the Unification of the Western World

• • Key Question: Do people prefer order to liberty?
• • The Augustan Era
• • Order and Continuity: The Dynastic Option
• • Order and Continuity: The Elective Option
• • Life in an Imperial Environment
• • The Decline of Rome

Chapter 7: The West’s Medieval Civilizations

• • Key Question: Should freedom of religion be limited?
• • The Christian Element
• • The German Element
• • The Byzantine Empire of Constantinople
• • Islam

Chapter 8: The Emergence of Europe

• • Key Question: How did Europe build on its legacies from the ancient world?
• • The Merovingian Kingdom: Europe’s Nucleus
• • The Franks’ Neighbors
• • The Carolingian Era
• • Retrenchment and Reorganization
• • The Culture of Europe’s Dark Age

Chapter 9: Europe Turns Outward

• • Key Question: Was conflict among the medieval civilizations inevitable?
• • Islam’s Crest and Byzantium’s Resurgence
• • The Reorganization of Feudal Europe
• • The Eleventh-Century Turning Point

Chapter 10: Europe’s High Middle Ages

• • Key Question: Why are some societies more open to change than others?
• • The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century
• • Universities and Scholasticism
• • Religious Revival and Diversity of Opinion
• • The Artistic Vision of the High Middle Ages
• • Government in the High Middle Ages

Chapter 11: Challenges to the Medieval Order

• • Key Question: What did the crises of the late medieval era reveal about the strengths and weaknesses of Europe’s civilization?
• • Challenges from Nature
• • Turmoil in the Middle East
• • Spiritual Crises
• • Political Responses: The Burdens of War

Chapter 12: Renaissance and Exploration

• • Key Question: How should a society use its history?
• • The Context for the Renaissance
• • The Culture of the Renaissance
• • The Northern Renaissance
• • The Middle East: The Ottoman Empire
• • Europe and Atlantic Exploration

Chapter 13: Reformation, Religious Wars, and National Conflicts

• • Key Question: How do civilized societies justify war?
• • The Lutheran Reformation
• • The Swiss Reformation
• • The Catholic Reformation
• • The Habsburg-Valois Wars
• • England’s Ambivalent Reformation
• • Convergence of Foreign and Domestic Politics: England, Spain, and France
• • The Final Religious Upheaval