Western Civilization,
11th Edition

Jackson J. Spielvogel

ISBN-13: 9780357362983
Copyright 2021 | Published
576 pages | List Price: USD $149.95

Join the more than 1 million students who have used Spielvogel's texts to succeed in their Western civilization course. There's a reason why WESTERN CIVILIZATION is a bestseller: It makes history come alive. Updated with the most current scholarship, the 11th Edition is packed with primary source features that highlight real voices from the past, a variety of end-of-chapter study tools to help you prepare for exams, colorful maps, vivid photographs and visuals and dramatic firsthand historical accounts -- bringing to life the stories of the people and events that have shaped Western civilization. In addition, MindTap equips you with anywhere, anytime digital learning tools.

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1. The Ancient Near East: The First Civilizations.
2. The Ancient Near East: Peoples and Empires.
3. The Civilization of the Greeks.
4. The Hellenistic World.
5. The Roman Republic.
6. The Roman Empire.
7. Late Antiquity and the Emergence of the Medieval World.
8. European Civilization in the Early Middle Ages, 750–1000.
9. The Recovery and Growth of European Society in the High Middle Ages.
10. The Rise of Kingdoms and the Growth of Church Power.
11. The Later Middle Ages: Crisis and Disintegration in the Fourteenth Century.
12. Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance.
13. Reformation and Religious Warfare in the Sixteenth Century.
14. Europe and The World: New Encounters, 1500–1800.
15. State Building and the Search for Order in the Seventeenth Century.
16. Toward a New Heaven and a New Earth: The Scientific Revolution and the Emergence of Modern Science.

  • Jackson J. Spielvogel

    Jackson J. Spielvogel is Associate Professor Emeritus of History at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, where he specialized in Reformation History under Harold J. Grimm. His articles and reviews have appeared in journals such as MOREANA, JOURNAL OF GENERAL EDUCATION, CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW, ARCHIV FÜR REFORMATIONSGESCHICHTE and AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW. He also has contributed chapters or articles to THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF REFORMATION, THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE: A DICTIONARY HANDBOOK, the SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER ANNUAL OF HOLOCAUST STUDIES and UTOPIAN STUDIES. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and the Foundation for Reformation Research. At Penn State, he helped inaugurate the Western Civilization course, as well as a popular course on Nazi Germany. His book HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY was first published in 1987 (7th Edition, 2014). In addition, he is the author of WESTERN CIVILIZATION, first published in 1991 (10th Edition, 2018), and co-author (with William Duiker) of WORLD HISTORY, first published in 1994 (9th Edition, 2019). Professor Spielvogel has won five major university-wide teaching awards. During the 1988-1989 year, he held the Penn State Teaching Fellowship, the university's most prestigious teaching award. He won the Dean Arthur Ray Warnock Award for Outstanding Faculty member in 1996 and received the Schreyer Honors College Excellence in Teaching Award in 2000.

  • Thoroughly updated, the 11th Edition of this popular text incorporates new and revised material in every chapter to reflect the most current historical scholarship. The author also implements many new enhancements based on reviewer feedback.

  • Providing a focused, consistent and engaging narrative throughout the text, Spielvogel is an award-winning teacher and scholar whose clear, lively and informative writing style has made this text a favorite among students. Numerous testimonials from professors ranging from Ivy League universities to two-year technical colleges give the same primary reason for using this text -- because their students can read and understand it.

  • Under the "Historical Voices" heading, an unrivaled selection of primary sources includes over 250 letters, song lyrics, official documents, diary entries, menus, poems, plays and more -- giving students access to materials historians use to shape their interpretations of the past while showing what Western civilization meant to those who shaped it. New document boxes include Instructions of Shuruppag (Ch. 1); Charlemagne's Goal of Learning (Ch. 8); Problems of Renaissance City Governments (Ch. 12); Disaster in Russia (Ch. 19); Daily Life in the Collective Farms (Ch. 26); and The Current Malaise (Ch. 29).

  • Included in most chapters, "Opposing Viewpoints" present a comparison of two or three primary sources in order to facilitate student analysis of historical documents. Topics include The Great Flood: Two Versions (Ch. 1); Women in Athens and Sparta (Ch. 3); Causes of the Black Death (Ch. 11); Women in the Age of the Enlightenment: Rousseau and Wollstonecraft (Ch. 17); White Man’s Burden Versus Black Man’s Burden (Ch. 24); and Who Started the Cold War: American and Soviet Perspectives (Ch. 28). Assignable questions at the end of each feature aid individual and collaborative study.

  • "Global Perspectives" features reinforce the relationship between the West and other parts of the world by examining paired images or documents. Found in 20 chapters, this feature includes such topics as The Stele in the Ancient World (Ch. 1); Women in the Roman and Han Empires (Ch. 6); Medieval Monastic Life in West and East (Ch. 10); Revolution and Revolt in France and China (Ch. 19); West and East: Textile Factory Work (Ch. 23); and The New Global Economy: Fast Fashion (Ch. 30).

  • Combining two or more illustrations with a lengthy caption, the "Images of Everyday Life" feature gives readers insight into various aspects of social life throughout history as it spotlights such topics as "Children in the Roman World", "Family and Marriage in Renaissance Italy", "Women in the Enlightenment Salon" and "Youth Culture in the 1960s".

  • "Historians Debate" features highlight brief explanations about varying views on historical interpretation to remind students that history isn't always as simple as black and white. Examples include: "Was There a United Kingdom of Israel?"; "Was There a Renaissance for Women?"; "Was There an Agricultural Revolution?"; "The Retreat from Democracy: Did Europe Have Totalitarian States?"; and "Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?"

  • An abbreviated format for "Film & History" features gives readers a snippet of information about films related to chapter material and includes a question appropriate for class discussion or individual assignments after viewing the film.

  • Helping ensure students have a thorough understanding of chapter concepts, end-of-chapter review material includes an illustrated Chapter Summary, a Chapter Timeline and a Chapter Review that includes "Upon Reflection" essay questions and Key Terms from the chapter.

Cengage provides a range of supplements that are updated in coordination with the main title selection. For more information about these supplements, contact your Learning Consultant.