In this overview, Michael Burger's pedagogical goal is to provide a brief historical narrative of Western civilization to enable students to engage more fully with primary sources. The no-frills, uncluttered format and well-written, one-author approach make this book an affordable yet valuable asset for every history student.
The third edition features stylistic and substantive revisions throughout. Volume One includes additional coverage of the neolithic revolution, the evolving self-definition of the West, race in the Middle Ages, the Crusades, and the conquest of the Americas, as well as new and improved maps.
By:
Michael Burger
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Edition: 3rd edition
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 191mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 680g
ISBN: 9781487529697
ISBN 10: 1487529694
Pages: 324
Publication Date: 18 July 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Figures List of Maps Preface Preface to the Third Edition Notes on References, Further Reading, and Dates 1. Foundations: The Ancient Near East 1.1. Fundamentals: Prehistory and the Origins of Civilization 1.2. Egypt and Mesopotamia: Government and Culture 1.3. Polytheism and Monotheism 1.4. Problems of Government 1.5. The Near East and the Greeks: Mycenaean, Minoan, and Dark-Age Greece 2. The Greeks: Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic 2.0. Introduction 2.1. Fundamentals: An Agonistic Culture 2.2. The Early Polis 2.3. Polis or Hellas? And the Identity of the West 2.4. Changes in the Polis: Archaic and Classical 2.5. Athens: Archaic and Classical 2.6. Sparta: Archaic and Classical 2.7. Philosophers and Sophists 2.8. Plato’s Republic 2.9. The End of Classical Greece, and the Hellenistic World 3. Rome: From Republic to Empire 3.0. Introduction 3.1. Foundations: Rome’s Early History, Pietas, and the Mos Maiorum 3.2. The Republic: Structure and Function 3.3. Consequences of Empire I: Constituencies for Change 3.4. Consequences of Empire II: The Emergence of Graeco-Roman Civilization 3.5. Consequences of Empire III: The Republic Unravels 3.6. Principate and Empire 3.7. Rome and its Empire 4. Rome’s Fall? Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages 4.1. Fundamentals: The Problem of the Fall of Rome 4.2. The Crisis of the Third Century and its Resolution 4.3. Christians and Romans 4.4. Barbarians and Romans 4.5. The Franks 4.6. Islam and the West 4.7. The Carolingian Empire 4.8. The Collapse of the Carolingian Empire and its Aftermath, ca. 850–ca. 1050 4.9. A Feudal Society? The West ca. 850–ca. 1000 5. The High and Late Middle Ages 5.0. Introduction 5.1. Fundamentals: Christendom, Economic Growth, and a Society of Orders, Estates, and Corporations 5.2. The Reform of Christendom 5.3. The West and Its Neighbors, and Western Christians and their Neighbors, in the High (and Late) Middle Ages 5.4. The Rise of Government 5.5. Church versus Crown in the High Middle Ages 5.6. Limiting Government 5.7. Reason, Nature, and the Self 5.8. The Late Middle Ages: Demographic Shock and its Impact 5.9. A Renaissance? 6. The Early Modern West I: The Reformation, the Great Consolidation, and the End of Christendom 6.0. Introduction 6.1. Fundamentals: Protestant Doctrine and the Middle Ages 6.2. A Catholic Reformation? 6.3. The Sexes and the Family 6.4. Fragmentation and Further Reform 6.5. Complications: Political and Social 6.6. Political Results: The Consolidation of Royal Authority 6.7. A Crisis of Authority and the End of Christendom 6.8. Early Modern Western Expansion 7. 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: Volume One: From Antiquity to the Reformation, Third Edition
"""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 to impart knowledge but to provoke their students to a certain way of thinking.""--Oren Falk, Cornell University ""This is an elegant book that does many difficult things at once: it reflects the most up-to-date scholarship on premodern history, it carefully elucidates how the material bears on contemporary cultural issues, and it thoroughly substantiates the narrative with evidence from primary and premodern sources. Quite an accomplishment!""--Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, University of California, Santa Barbara "" The Shaping of Western Civilization provides a focused narrative, written in a clear style, that is accessible to today's college and university students - many of whom may not have been sufficiently introduced to the history of Western civilization in their previous schooling. The relatively trim length and low price add to the attractiveness of this volume. These features do not detract from presenting a critical treatment of topics based on the current state of scholarship, and there is a good balance in the coverage of social, political, cultural, and religious history."" --James Palmitessa, Western Michigan University"
