An Introduction to Modern Western Civilization

An Introduction to Modern Western Civilization
Author: Edmund Clingan
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2011-10-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1462054390

Over the past 250 years, Europe and the United States have changed from simple societies into complex, densely-populated, industrial powerhouses. Th s book explains how it happened in clear language intended for the general reader. Each chapter includes a timeline, key terms and persons, and web-based sources of writings from the time. "We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us."

The Collapse of Western Civilization

The Collapse of Western Civilization
Author: Naomi Oreskes
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0231537956

The year is 2393, and the world is almost unrecognizable. Clear warnings of climate catastrophe went ignored for decades, leading to soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, widespread drought and—finally—the disaster now known as the Great Collapse of 2093, when the disintegration of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet led to mass migration and a complete reshuffling of the global order. Writing from the Second People's Republic of China on the 300th anniversary of the Great Collapse, a senior scholar presents a gripping and deeply disturbing account of how the children of the Enlightenment—the political and economic elites of the so-called advanced industrial societies—failed to act, and so brought about the collapse of Western civilization. In this haunting, provocative work of science-based fiction, Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway imagine a world devastated by climate change. Dramatizing the science in ways traditional nonfiction cannot, the book reasserts the importance of scientists and the work they do and reveals the self-serving interests of the so called "carbon combustion complex" that have turned the practice of science into political fodder. Based on sound scholarship and yet unafraid to speak boldly, this book provides a welcome moment of clarity amid the cacophony of climate change literature.

Spare Me the Details!

Spare Me the Details!
Author: Sara S. Drogin
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2008-05-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0595913296

"I wish I knew more about Western history." Adult, parent, student, and traveler: Who of us hasn't had this thought? Sara Drogin, a veteran high-school history teacher, addresses this wish with Spare Me the Details!, a "refresher text" for adults and students. Written in a lively and conversational style, Spare Me the Details! provides a concise overview of Western civilization. Spare Me the Details! begins with Ancient Greece and concludes with the twenty-first century. The book describes the key periods, events, and luminaries of Western history, provides cause-and-effect analysis, and establishes historical connections across time periods. Additionally, Spare Me the Details! develops two major themes central to Western civilization: the evolution of humanism and the growth of democracy. It also pays special attention to the role of women throughout history and to the connection between the arts and history. Now you, too, will know the essentials of Western civilization.

Western Civilization in World History

Western Civilization in World History
Author: Peter N. Stearns
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2008-01-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134374747

Western civilization and world history are often seen as different, or even mutually exclusive, routes into historical studies. This volume shows that they can be successfully linked, providing a tool to see each subject in the context of the other, identifying influences and connections. Western Civilization in World History takes up the recent debates about the merits of the well-established 'Western civ' approach versus the newer field of world history. Peter N. Stearns outlines key aspects of Western civilization - often assumed rather than analyzed - and reviews them in a global context.

Fears and Symbols

Fears and Symbols
Author: Elemér Hankiss
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789639241077

An encyclopedic study on the role that fear and anxiety have played as the organizing motives of human existence and social life. Hankiss explains how human beings have surrounded themselves with protective symbols: myths and religions, values and belief systems, ideas and scientific theories, moral and practical rules of behaviour, and a wide range of everyday rituals and trivialities.

Music in Western Civilization

Music in Western Civilization
Author: Paul Henry Lang
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 1158
Release: 1997
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780393040746

A comprehensive history of occidental music focuses on the function of music as an expression of the spirit and artistic life of each age.

Medicine and Western Civilization

Medicine and Western Civilization
Author: David J. Rothman
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 468
Release: 1995
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9780813521909

This fabulous anthology is sure to be a core text for history of medicine and social science classes in colleges across the country. In order to demonstrate how medical research has influenced Western cultural perspectives, the editors have collected original works from 61 different authors around nine major themes (among them "Anatomy and Destiny," "Psyche and Soma," and "The Construction of Pain, Suffering, and Death"). The authors range from Aristotle, the Bible, and Louis Pasteur, to Masters and Johnson, Ernest Hemingway, and Simone de Beauvoir. The primary sources selected to illustrate the themes are well chosen and contrast with each other nicely. However, the brief background material for the selections center around the authors and offer little or no discussion about the selections' relevance to the topics at hand. This book would be best read in a class or group where the texts' meaning in relation to each other can be discussed, but the book can stand alone if the reader is prepared to do some critical thinking.

Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization

Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization
Author: Samuel Gregg
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2019-06-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1621579069

"Gregg's book is the closet thing I've encountered in a long time to a one-volume user's manual for operating Western Civilization." —The Stream "Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization offers a concise intellectual history of the West through the prism of the relationship between faith and reason." —Free Beacon The genius of Western civilization is its unique synthesis of reason and faith. But today that synthesis is under attack—from the East by radical Islam (faith without reason) and from within the West itself by aggressive secularism (reason without faith). The stakes are incalculably high. The naïve and increasingly common assumption that reason and faith are incompatible is simply at odds with the facts of history. The revelation in the Hebrew Scriptures of a reasonable Creator imbued Judaism and Christianity with a conviction that the world is intelligible, leading to the flowering of reason and the invention of science in the West. It was no accident that the Enlightenment took place in the culture formed by the Jewish and Christian faiths. We can all see that faith without reason is benighted at best, fanatical and violent at worst. But too many forget that reason, stripped of faith, is subject to its own pathologies. A supposedly autonomous reason easily sinks into fanaticism, stifling dissent as bigoted and irrational and devouring the humane civilization fostered by the integration of reason and faith. The blood-soaked history of the twentieth century attests to the totalitarian forces unleashed by corrupted reason. But Samuel Gregg does more than lament the intellectual and spiritual ruin caused by the divorce of reason and faith. He shows that each of these foundational principles corrects the other’s excesses and enhances our comprehension of the truth in a continuous renewal of civilization. By recovering this balance, we can avoid a suicidal winner-take-all conflict between reason and faith and a future that will respect neither.

Western Civilization: Beyond Boundaries

Western Civilization: Beyond Boundaries
Author: Thomas F. X. Noble
Publisher: Cengage Learning
Total Pages: 976
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781133602712

Europe's place in the world throughout the narrative and in the primary source feature, The Global Record. The seventh edition has been carefully revised and edited for greater accessibility, and features a streamlined design that incorporates pedagogical features such as focus questions, key terms, and section summaries to better support students of western civilization. The reconceived narrative and restructured organization, featuring smaller, more cohesive learning units, lend to greater ease of use for both students and instructors. History CourseMate, a set of media-rich study tools with interactive eBook that gives students access to quizzes, flashcards, primary sources, videos and more, are available for this new edition. (CourseMate may be bundled with the text or purchased separately.) Available in the following split options: WESTERN CIVILIZATION: BEYOND BOUNDARIES, Seventh Edition Complete, Volume I: To 1715, Volume II: Since 1560, Volume A: To 1500, Volume B: 1300-1815, and Volume C: Since 1789. Available with InfoTrac Student Collections http://gocengage.com/infotrac. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.