Western Civilization, A Brief History

Marvin Perry, now retired, taught history at Baruch College, City University of New York. He has published several successful Cengage Learning texts, including WESTERN CIVILIZATION: IDEAS, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY (senior author and general editor); WESTERN CIVILIZATION: A BRIEF HISTORY; the leading Western Civilization reader, SOURCES OF THE WESTERN TRADITION; AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE; SOURCES OF EUROPEAN HISTORY SINCE 1900 (senior editor); HUMANITIES IN THE WESTERN TRADITION (senior author and general editor); and WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE: A CONCISE HISTORY. His scholarly work includes ARNOLD TOYNBEE AND THE WESTERN TRADITION (1996); ANTISEMITISM: MYTH AND HATE FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT (coauthor, 2002); ANTISEMITIC MYTHS: A HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY ANTHOLOGY (coeditor, 2008); and THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM: AN ANTHOLOGY (coeditor, 2008). Dr. Perry's scholarly work focuses on the history of ideas.

• Part I: THE ANCIENT WORLD: FOUNDATION OF THE WEST TO A.D. 500.1. The Ancient Near East: The First Civilizations.2. The Hebrews: A New View of God and the Individual.3. The Greeks: From Myth to Reason.4. Rome: From City-State to World Empire.5. Early Christianity: A World Religion.Part II: THE MIDDLE AGES: THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 500—1400.6. The Rise of Europe: Fusion of Classical, Christian, and Germanic Traditions.7. The Flowering and Dissolution of Medieval Civilization.Part III: THE RISE OF MODERNITY: FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT 1350—1789.8. Transition to the Modern Age: Renaissance and Reformation.9. Political and Economic Transformation: National States, Overseas Expansion, Commercial Revolution.10. Intellectual Transformation: The Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment.Part IV: THE MODERN WEST: PROGRESS AND BREAKDOWN 1789—1914.11. The Era of the French Revolution: Affirmation of Liberty and Equality.12. The Industrial Revolution: The Transformation of Society.13. Thought and Culture in the Early Nineteenth Century.14. Surge of Liberalism and Nationalism: Revolution, Counterrevolution, and Unification.15. Thought and Culture in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Realism, Positivism, Darwinism, and Social Criticism.16. Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century: Modernization, Nationalism, Imperialism.17. Modern Consciousness: New Views of Nature, Human Nature, and the Arts.Part V: WESTERN CIVILIZATION IN CRISIS: WORLD WARS AND TOTALITARIANISM 1914—1945.18. World War I: The West in Despair.19. An Era of Totalitarianism.20. World War II: Western Civilization in the Balance.Part VI: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD.21. Europe After World War II: Recovery and Realignment, 1945—1989.22. The Troubled Present.