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The Shaping of Western Civilization

From Antiquity to the Present

Michael Burger

$79.99

Paperback

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English
University of Toronto Press
26 September 2013
Michael Burger's goal in this inexpensive overview is to provide a brief, historical narrative of Western civilization. Not only does its length and price separate this text from the competition, but its no-frills, uncluttered format and well-written, one-authored approach make it a valuable asset for every history student.

The Shaping of Western Civilization begins with the ancient Near East and ends with globalization. Unlike other textbooks that pile on dates and facts, Shaping is a more coherent and interpretive presentation. Burger's skills as writer and synthesizer will enable students to obtain the background required to ask meaningful questions of primary sources. In addition to suggestions for further reading, this overview includes over 50 images and 22 maps.
By:  
Imprint:   University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication:   Canada
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 192mm,  Spine: 27mm
Weight:   900g
ISBN:   9781442601901
ISBN 10:   1442601906
Pages:   512
Publication Date:  
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
List of Figures List of Maps Preface Notes on references, further reading, and dates 1. Foundations: The Ancient Near East 2. The Greeks: Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic 3. Rome: From Republic to Empire 4. Rome's Fall? Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages 5. The High and Late Middle Ages 6. The Early Modern West I: The Reformation, the great consolidation, and the end of Christendom 7. The Early Modern West II: Science, society, and the state 8. The Early Modern West III: Enlightenment, industrialization, and an unraveled compromise 9. The West, 1815-1914: The search for community, and responses to the Enlightenment and revolution 10. From ca. 1914 to the present: The search for community, global conflict, and the harvest of the modern West 11. Coda: The Shaping of Western Civilization Sources Index

Michael Burger is a professor of history at Auburn University at Montgomery.

Reviews for The Shaping of Western Civilization: From Antiquity to the Present

At last, an introductory text that takes the power of ideas seriously. Judicious and insightful, this book will treat students to the breadth and riches of Western civilization.--Gerry Bowler, University of Manitoba Instructors of a Western Civilization curriculum can nowadays choose from any number of textbooks, most of which are, in all honesty, perfectly good. But I know of no other textbook in English that I would recommend to undergraduates, graduate students, and colleagues as a thought-provoking read on its own merits. Burger's survey covers all of the expected factual bases, but it also challenges readers to reflect on the process of history-making itself, models enquiry for them, and calls attention to the structuring limitations on our pursuit of historical knowledge: evidence never speaks of its own accord, different questions require different levels of resolution, similarities among cultures serve to heighten the contrasts, past and present ways of looking at the world may be incommensurable, historians must beware of moralizing--and all this just in the first chapter! This is a book for those instructors who believe that the goal of teaching history is not ito impart knowledge but ito provoke their students to a certain way of thinking.--Oren Falk, Cornell University I had become increasingly disillusioned with Western Civ textbooks in general, largely on the grounds that they present a unified, uncontroversial narrative, which is not at all how historians actually understand the past. The Shaping of Western Civilization is entirely different, in that, by highlighting puzzles and debates, it actually shows students what historians do. I am also pleased with the low-cost production, as I teach at a campus with many students of modest means. If and when I teach Western Civ again, I will almost certainly assign this text.--William H. Campbell, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg


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