Offers a concise introduction to political, cultural, and intellectual history. This eleventh edition retains many popular features, including comparative timelines, full-color art essays, and primary source boxes in each chapter.

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.