Shaping of Western Civilization

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

• List of Figures List of Maps PrefacePreface to the Third EditionNotes on References, Further Reading, and Dates1. Foundations: The Ancient Near East1.1. Fundamentals: Prehistory and the Origins of Civilization1.2. Egypt and Mesopotamia: Government and Culture1.3. Polytheism and Monotheism1.4. Problems of Government1.5. The Near East and the Greeks: Mycenaean, Minoan, and Dark-Age Greece2. The Greeks: Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic2.0. Introduction2.1. Fundamentals: An Agonistic Culture2.2. The Early Polis2.3. Polis or Hellas? And the Identity of the West2.4. Changes in the Polis: Archaic and Classical2.5. Athens: Archaic and Classical2.6. Sparta: Archaic and Classical2.7. Philosophers and Sophists2.8. Plato’s Republic2.9. The End of Classical Greece, and the Hellenistic World3. Rome: From Republic to Empire3.0. Introduction3.1. Foundations: Rome’s Early History, Pietas, and the Mos Maiorum3.2. The Republic: Structure and Function3.3. Consequences of Empire I: Constituencies for Change3.4. Consequences of Empire II: The Emergence of Graeco-Roman Civilization3.5. Consequences of Empire III: The Republic Unravels3.6. Principate and Empire3.7. Rome and its Empire4. Rome’s Fall? Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages4.1. Fundamentals: The Problem of the Fall of Rome4.2. The Crisis of the Third Century and its Resolution4.3. Christians and Romans4.4. Barbarians and Romans4.5. The Franks4.6. Islam and the West4.7. The Carolingian Empire4.8. The Collapse of the Carolingian Empire and its Aftermath, ca. 850–ca. 10504.9. A Feudal Society? The West ca. 850–ca. 10005. The High and Late Middle Ages5.0. Introduction5.1. Fundamentals: Christendom, Economic Growth, and a Society of Orders, Estates, and Corporations5.2. The Reform of Christendom  5.3. The West and Its Neighbors, and Western Christians and their Neighbors, in the High (and Late) Middle Ages5.4. The Rise of Government5.5. Church versus Crown in the High Middle Ages5.6. Limiting Government5.7. Reason, Nature, and the Self5.8. The Late Middle Ages: Demographic Shock and its Impact5.9. A Renaissance?6. The Early Modern West I: The Reformation, the Great Consolidation, and the End of Christendom6.0. Introduction6.1. Fundamentals: Protestant Doctrine and the Middle Ages6.2. A Catholic Reformation?6.3. The Sexes and the Family6.4. Fragmentation and Further Reform6.5. Complications: Political and Social6.6. Political Results: The Consolidation of Royal Authority6.7. A Crisis of Authority and the End of Christendom6.8. Early Modern Western Expansion7. Coda: The Shaping of Western CivilizationSourcesIndex