Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society, Volume II: From 1600
The 'typical' students in my Western Civilization course [are] fresh out of high school where most have been taught that History isn't much more than dates, names and memorization. Therefore, the Chronology tables in the Perry text provide some comfort to students. However, they act as an entre to 'real' History, which Perry does very well."...Perry has a fine overarching plan for this textbook and he does an excellent job of tying the themes together, transitioning from one to the next; comparing and contrasting--it's obvious to me that he brings many years of fine teaching to this project.... I find his presentation really compelling, nicely thought out, nicely integrated, really well done. He also does a great job of giving a sympathetic telling to each system of thought. And the writing is really great - clear, clean, artistic, even."Whether it is because I have used the Perry book for so long or because I developed my courses this way and then found the Perry book to be perfectly suited in organization, I think that for me it is exactly right.