Western Civilization: A Brief History
WESTERN CIVILIZATION: A BRIEF HISTORY is one of the best, and most comprehensive, introductory college textbooks in history. The book achieves sound balance between political and social issues and maintains student interest through a compelling narrative and compact chapters. It allows the instructor to do more with a course."For a new or inexperienced instructor, this text (along with the various supplements) is as close to a fail-safe strategy for teaching Western Civilization as may be found anywhere. The writing itself is exuberant and lively, and may certainly be used (with or without supplements) by more experienced Instructors."[Spielvogel] does an excellent overall job of providing the student with an idea of the political, social and cultural history of each of the eras…."Spielvogel's greatest strength is the consistent narrative style, the coherence of the chapters' story line, the inclusion of good documents, illustrations, maps, timelines, and glossary of terms. At the end of the day, students who have carefully read the text will have a decent overview of the highlights (and lowlights) of Western Civilization."Spielvogel offers a direct, comprehensible survey of the history of western civilization. His book is well written, skillfully organized, and accurate. It has enough details to enable students to understand the causes and consequences of historical events, but not so many as to bog them down in unnecessary trivia.