The Global West: Connections & Identities, Volume 1: To 1790,
3rd Edition

Frank L. Kidner, Maria Bucur, Ralph Mathisen, Sally McKee, Theodore R. Weeks

ISBN-13: 9781337401388
Copyright 2019 | Published
544 pages | List Price: USD $149.95

Intimidated by the thought of taking Western civ? You may be in for a pleasant surprise because THE GLOBAL WEST isn't a typical Western civ textbook. Developed by authors who've spent years helping a diverse range of students understand history, the book uses stories of ordinary people and their impact on history, along with stunning images and maps that make the subject interesting. You'll also have lots of help learning concepts with learning objectives, an easy-reading narrative and a clear message that helps you "get" the origins of today's interconnected world.

Purchase Enquiry INSTRUCTOR’S eREVIEW COPY

1. The Origins of the West in the Ancient Near East, 3000–1200 B.C.E.
2. Iron Age Civilizations, 1200–500 B.C.E.
3. The Rise of Greek Civilization, 1100–387 B.C.E.
4. From Polis to Cosmopolis: The Hellenistic World, 387-30 B.C.E.
5. The Rise of Rome, 753–27 B.C.E.
6. The Roman Empire, 27 B.C.E.–284 C.E.
7. Late Antiquity, 284–527.
8. The Eastern Mediterranean, 500–1000.
9. The Kingdoms of Western Europe, 500–1000.
10. The High Middle Ages, 1000–1300.
11. Reversals and Disasters, 1300–1450.
12. The Renaissance in Italy and Northern Europe, 1350–1550.
13. Europe's Age of Expansion, 1450–1550.
14. Reform in the Western Church, 1490–1570.
15. A Century of Crisis, 1550–1650.
16. State Building and the European State System 1648–1789.
17. The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, 1550–1790.

  • Frank L. Kidner

    Frank L. Kidner is Professor of History Emeritus at San Francisco State University, where he taught from 1968 until his retirement in 2006. He has also taught in the Western Civilization program at Stanford University and at Amherst College. His courses include Western Civilization, undergraduate and graduate courses in Early Modern Europe, and the history of the Christian Church as well as a graduate course in historical methodology. He has authored articles on topics in Late Antiquity and co-edited TRAVEL, COMMUNICATION, AND GEOGRAPHY IN LATE ANTIQUITY.

  • Maria Bucur

    Maria Bucur is John V. Hill Professor in Eastern European History and Professor of Gender Studies at Indiana University, where she has taught an undergraduate course on “The Idea of Europe” and other topics in nineteenth- and twentieth-century eastern Europe. Her research focus is on social and cultural developments in eastern Europe, with a special interest in Romania (geographically) and gender (thematically). Her publications include EUGENICS AND MODERNIZATION IN INTERWAR ROMANIA and HEROES AND VICTIMS: REMEMBERING WAR IN TWENTIETH CENTURY ROMANIA. When not writing and reading history or administrative memos, Bucur is following her dream of being in a band (violin and bass) with her husband and children.

  • Ralph Mathisen

    Ralph Mathisen is Professor of History, Classics, and Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a specialist in the ancient world with a particular interest in the society, culture, and religion of Late Antiquity. His teaching experience includes Western Civilization and topics in the Ancient Near East, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, coinage, and Roman law. He has written more than seventy scholarly articles and has written or edited 10 books, the most recent of which is PEOPLE, PERSONAL EXPRESSION, AND SOCIAL RELATIONS IN LATE ANTIQUITY. He is also the editor of the JOURNAL OF LATE ANTIQUITY and OXFORD STUDIES IN LATE ANTIQUITY. He enjoys traveling, running, and ballroom dancing.

  • Sally McKee

    Sally McKee is Professor of History at the University of California at Davis, where she teaches courses on Western Civilization and medieval history. Her research focus has been Venice and its colonies and Mediterranean slavery, but her new project centers on nineteenth-century France and Italy. She is the author of articles that have won prizes and been anthologized, and she has also published a three-volume edition of Venetian-Cretan wills and a monograph, UNCOMMON DOMINION: VENETIAN CRETE AND THE MYTH OF ETHNIC PURITY. When she is not teaching, she travels the world in search of archives, modern art museums, and great street food.

  • Theodore R. Weeks

    Theodore R. Weeks is Professor of History at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he teaches Western Civilization and world and European history. His research centers on nationality, inter-ethnic relations, and antisemitism in eastern Europe. He is the author of NATION AND STATE IN LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA and FROM ASSIMILIATION TO ANTISEMITISM: THE “JEWISH QUESTION” IN POLAND, 1850-1914, and his articles have appeared in several languages, including Estonian and Hebrew.

  • The third edition of THE GLOBAL WEST features new, enhanced chapter chronologies that put the history of the West in a global context.

  • In-chapter pronunciation guides help readers with unfamiliar names of persons, places, events and concepts.

  • Each chapter now contains "Connections" features that illustrate how topics and themes from one period or region relate to those from another. In many cases, cross references support the "Connections" to let students know where to find additional related information in the text. Some of the features are designed to spur students to connect historical themes of the past with today's social and political landscape.

  • Some of the "Learning from a Primary Source" features are expanded in a new "Analyze and Compare" feature that includes two related primary sources, one Western and one non-Western, that allow students to make global connections and contrasts.

  • Images throughout the book are revised to include examples that present the West's history in a global context.

  • The integrated learning system includes chapter-opening focus questions, a map program with geography-enhancing questions in many of the map captions and start-of-section questions. It also includes an end-of-chapter review section with a bulleted chapter summary, an enhanced chronology and critical thinking questions, all designed to help students succeed in the course.

  • Superior coverage of religious history from ancient times up to the present is an ongoing feature of the book. The authors discuss religious groups often underrepresented in histories of the West, such as Bosnian Muslims and Muslim immigrants to Western Europe, Catholic and Protestant Irish and Eastern Orthodox Christians.

  • A focus on class, gender roles, social norms and family issues helps students understand topics such as the implications of sexuality in Sparta, citizenship in the Athenian city-state, socioeconomics in the relatively stateless early Middle Ages, what it meant to live as a man or woman during the French Revolution and life as a soldier or nurse in the trenches of World War I.

  • The book's political narrative helps students to place historical developments in a chronological framework that raises issues about the relation of peoples to the state structures, ruling groups and state systems under which they lived. This approach helps students to understand what came before and after in the lives of Western peoples--familiarizing them with the issues of change and development over time.

  • New pedagogical features, including enhanced image and map questions, critical thinking questions, pronunciation guides and enhanced chronologies help students use critical thinking skills, see connections between events and better understand the significance of historical events.

  • "Profiles in Change" essays show personal agency in history--each contains an account of an individual making a crucial choice that mattered, that had important consequences and that highlights the chapter's central concerns. In MindTap, these stories are expanded and presented as engaging videos.

  • "Learning from a Primary Source" features guide students through primary sources and help them analyze the documents historically through a series of numbered marginal notes. The notes also support instructors who want to integrate primary sources into their classrooms. In some chapters, the feature is expanded in a new "Analyze and Compare" boxed feature that includes two primary sources, one Western and one non-Western, that allow students to make connections and contrasts within a global framework.

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.