Western civilization : a social and cultural history /
A social and cultural history
Margaret L. King.
- 2nd ed.
- Uper Sadddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall Inc., 2003
- 2v.: ill. maps. (some col.) ; 28cm.
Originally published: Upper Saddle River : Prentice Hall, c2003. 2nd ed.
Includes bibliographical references and index
V. 1: Prehistory to 1750---- V.2: 1500 to the present Before the West, the inhabited world from the first civilizations to Alexander the Great, (prehistory-300 B.C.E): Stone, bronze, and word, prehistory and early civilizations; Armies and Empires, politics and power in the bronze and Iron Ages; Greek polis, the new politics of ancient Greece; School of Hellas, poetry, ideas, and the arts in ancient Greece -- Origins of the West, from Roman dominion to the new peoples of Europe (300 B.C.E.-1300 C.E.): Our sea, the Mediterranean world in the Hellenistic and early Roman eras; Pax Romana, society, state, and culture in imperial Rome; Pagans, Jews, and Christians, religions of the Mediterranean world; After antiquity, new peoples of Europe and other peoples of the world -- West takes form, medieval society, politics, economy, and culture (500-1500): Workers, warriors, and kings, politics and society in the Middle Ages; Spiritual sword, religion and culture in the Middle Ages; In the name of profit, cities, merchants, and trade in the Middle Ages -- West expands, the self, the state, the world (1200-1750): City life, public and private life in the late medieval cities; Rebirth in Italy, the civilization of the Italian Renaissance; Of one church, many, Protestant Reformation and Catholic reform; Absolute power, war and politics in early modern Europe; Europe reaches out, global voyages and cultural encounters -- Glossary.
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The West is a body of ideas, values, customs, and beliefs. These were forged over a period of centuries on the continent of Europe, which lay to the west of the then more advanced civilizations of the East. They triumphed during the centuries of European expansion: from approximately 1000 to 1900 of the Common Era, when Western values followed Western merchants, travelers, armies, and governors into every other corner of the inhabited globe. They are what the West means, and they are truly the meaning of the West ... We learn more about the Western world when we also examine the rest of the world ... This book will frequently pause in its narration of Western development to consider key aspects of non-Western civilizations, in the past and now.-Pref.