A Concise Survey of Western Civilization

Supremacies and Diversities throughout History

By (author) Brian A. Pavlac

Not available to order

Publication date:

19 February 2015

Length of book:

310 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442237711

This lively text offers a brief, readable description of our common Western heritage as it began in the first human societies and developed in ancient Greece and Rome, then through the Middle Ages. Providing a tightly focused narrative and interpretive structure, Brian A. Pavlac covers the basic historical information that all educated adults should know. His joined terms “supremacies and diversities” develop major themes of conflict and creativity throughout history. “Supremacies” centers on the use of power to dominate societies, ranging from warfare to ideologies. Supremacy seeks stability, order, and incorporation. “Diversities” encompasses the creative impulse that produces new ideas, as well as the efforts of groups of people to define themselves as “different.” Diversity creates change, opportunity, and individuality.

These themes of historical tension and change—whether applied to political, economic, technological, social, or cultural trends—offer a bridging explanatory organization. The text is also informed by five topical themes: technological innovation, migration and conquest, political and economic decision making, church and state, and disputes about the meaning of life. Throughout, judicious “basic principles” present summaries of historical realities and primary source projects offer students the chance to evaluate differing points of view about the past. Written with flair, this easily accessible yet deeply knowledgeable text provides all the essentials for courses on Western Civilization.

Brief Contents
List of Diagrams, Figures, Maps, Primary Source Projects, Tables, and Timelines
Acknowledgments
How to Use This Book

Chapter One: History’s Story
There’s Method
What Is Truth?
Primary Source Project 1: Voltaire versus Macaulay
Chapter Two: Wanderers and Settlers: The Ancient Middle East to 400 BC
The Apes’ Cousins
Bound to the Soil
The Price of Civilization
The Rise and Fall of Practically All Middle Eastern Empires
Primary Source Project 2: Xenophon versus Herodorus
Chapter Three: The Chosen People: Hebrews and Jews, 2000 BC to AD 135
Between and under Empires
The Tie That Binds
Primary Source Project 3: Prophecy of Micah versus Prophecy of Joel
Chapter Four: Trial of the Hellenes: The Ancient Greeks, 1200 BC to AD 146
To the Sea
The Political Animal
Metamorphosis
The Cultural Conquest
Primary Source Project 4: The Melian Dialogue
Chapter Five: Imperium Romanum: The Romans, 753 BC to AD 300
World Conquest in Self-Defense
The Price of Power
The Absolutist Solution
The Roads to Knowledge
Primary Source Project 5: Galgacus versus Agricola
Chapter Six: The Revolutionary Rabbi: Christianity, the Roman Empire, and Islam, 4 BC to AD 1253
The Son of Man
The Cultural War
Roma Delenda Est
Struggle for the Realm of Submission
Primary Source Project 6: Paul versus Pliny and Trajan
Chapter Seven: From Old Rome to the New West: The Early Middle Ages, AD 500 to 1000
Goths in the Garden
Charles in Charge
The Cavalry to the Rescue
Primary Source Project 7: Bad Bishops versus Benedict
Chapter Eight: The Medieval Mêlée: The High and Later Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500
Return of the Kings
Discipline and Domination
Plenty of Papal Power
The Age of Faith and Reason
A New Estate
Not the End of the World
Primary Source Project 8: Gregory VII versus Henry IV
Chapter Nine: Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation, 1400 to 1648
The Purse of Princes
Man as the Measure
Heaven Knows
Fatal Beliefs
God, Greed, and Glory
Primary Source Project 9: Witch Hunter versus Montaigne

Epilogue: Why Western Civilization?
Timelines
Common Abbreviations
Glossary
Suggested Readings
Index
About the Author

I liked the first edition, and I love the second. Concise, clear, with lively text, this new edition adds useful primary sources while retaining the strengths of the earlier edition. Brian Pavlac does an exceptional job in demonstrating to students how historians work, while providing them the tools to begin their own forays into the thickets of history.