adults to complete a degree once started, but interrupted. Frequently, adult students need to take a semester or two of history survey to meet a core requirement. Hence, courses in Western Civilization or World History are offered. Students may be required to attend evening classes that meet once a week for six to eight weeks, during which an entire semester's work is completed. At one point in my career, I was assigned to teach a one‐semester course in Western Civilization in a weeks as part of a non‐traditional adult program. Increasingly, non‐traditional courses are taught online, either live or prerecorded. Adult students taking these condensed courses, while at the same time trying to juggle work, family, and other of life's daily demands usually have very little time to spend reading the traditional survey history textbook.
Taking all of the above into consideration, I set for myself the task of writing a Western Civilization text that could be used in the traditional on‐campus course, or the non‐traditional classes. I wanted the text to be written in an interesting and engaging style, that is to say, I wanted it to be more than a chronological list of dates and names of dead people. What Theodore Roosevelt said of writing in general, I think is especially important in writing a history text for today's student population: “Writings are useless, unless they are read, and they cannot be read unless they are readable.” A history text should not be a dry academic piling up of facts. Historian Barbara W. Tuchman described herself “as a storyteller, a narrator, who deals in true stories, not fiction.” She also noted that writing readable history is not easy: “One has to sit down on that chair and think and transform thought into readable, conservative, interesting sentences that both make sense and make the reader turn the page.”
When writing this and earlier books, I tried, however imperfectly to follow Ms. Tuchman's advice and example. With that in mind, I chose to emphasize topics that students I taught over the many past years found interesting and likely to stimulate class discussion. I am well aware that there is no such thing as true objectivity in teaching or writing history. Merely selecting what historical events and personalities to include in a brief history destroys any such pretense. E.H. Carr called attention to this handicap of every historian in his classic What is History? “The belief in a hard core of historical facts existing independently of the historian,” wrote Carr, “is a preposterous fallacy, but one that is very hard to eradicate.”
Being aware that my own understanding and interpretation of historical events will invariably find its way into my writing to some degree, I nevertheless tried to be faithful to the facts. However, I do have a theme, or organizing idea, around which my story of the rise of Western Civilization is constructed, and it is a rather traditional one.
The roots of Western Civilization are found in the Ancient Near East and the Greco‐Roman world. From the former came the Judeo‐Christian religious tradition. From the latter came classical humanism. These two different ways of understanding the universe – how it works, whether it has meaning, humankind's place in it, etc. – was synthesized with certain Germanic traditions during the period of the Middle Ages in Europe. By AD 1000, there was in Europe, a new civilization that was different from all others, and armed with a worldview that facilitated both a Scientific Revolution and an Industrial Revolution. With a virtual monopoly on useful (that is, scientific) knowledge, Western Civilization was able to dominate the world by the end of the nineteenth century.
The spread of Western Civilization to the non‐Western world enabled those previously more advanced civilizations to “modernize,” and liberate themselves from Western imperialism. By the beginning of the twenty‐first century, a modernized China, for example, was able to challenge the West for world leadership. Still, the world we live in is a Westernized world.
Acknowledgments
A number of individuals contributed to this project. Students of mine and parents who home schooled their children often asked why I did not write my own history textbook. Well, once I was able to retire, I finally had time to entertain such a challenge. Andrew J. Davidson helped me prepare the proposal for the project. Haze Humbert and Jennifer Manias served as Executive Editors, Janani Govindankutty, Niranjana Vallavan, and Ajith Kumar served as conscientious project managers, Kelley Baylis, Sakthivel Kandaswamy, and many others at Wiley‐Blackwell whose names are unknown to me, have played a role in bringing this project to fruition.
My wife Darlene and daughter Elizabeth Waibel edited the individual chapters as I wrote them, correcting grammar and making helpful stylistic suggestions. Former colleagues, friends, and family members contributed images, thus helping to keep the price of the book reasonable. Finally, I wish to thank four professors who imbued in me the love of history and the desire to teach and write history – Benjamin W. Wright, Jr., Clifton W. Potter, Jr., Sheldon Vanauken, and Robert P. Grathwol. A special debt of gratitude is owed to Sheldon Vanauken, who encouraged me to “live under the mercy,” and to whose memory I dedicate this book.
Part I Ancient and Classical Civilization: An Overview
The story of Western Civilization begins around 3500 bc in the area referred to by historians as the Fertile Crescent, a quarter‐moon shaped area that stretches from the Nile River valley, along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf. It was in that area of fertile soil that people learned to farm and irrigate their fields with water from the rivers. Settled farming required organization, which gave birth to the first cities. It was also there that people first learned to write. Organized agriculture and urban life gave rise to a class structure, in which most of the people performed certain tasks, producing the means of livelihood, while a few had the time to contemplate the meaning and purpose of life. Writing made it possible to record not only the mundane affairs of day‐to‐day life, but also what may be described as philosophical and religious speculation.
If one thinks of an axis around which civilization develops and radiates outward, that axis moved from the Fertile Crescent north‐westward to the area of the Aegean Sea, as civilizations appeared along the rim of the Aegean Sea on the island of Crete, the coast of Asia Minor, and the Greek mainland. The Minoan Civilization on Crete and the Mycenaean Civilization on the Greek mainland contributed to the development of classical Greek civilization after 800 bc. With the conquest of the Middle East by Alexander the Great (d. 323 bc) and his successors, the Greek language and humanistic civilization of classical Greece spread throughout the Middle East and Egypt.
The Romans imposed political and, to a degree, cultural unity on the whole Mediterranean world by the end of the second century ad. But, though the Romans conquered the Hellenistic world, they were in turn conquered culturally by the Greeks, thus spreading the Greek language and culture to the western Mediterranean. The axis of civilization shifted westward to the Italian peninsula. It was during the centuries‐long rule of Rome, that the religious thought of the ancient Hebrews and early Christians blended with the classical humanism of Greek civilization.
1 The Cradle of Civilization
Chronology
c. 8000–5000 BC Neolithic Agec. 3500 BC First Cities Appear in Sumerc. 3300–3100 BC First Writing Appears in Sumerc. 3100 BC Civilization Appears in Nile River Valleyc. 2500 BC Civilization Appears in Indus River Valleyc. 2150 BC Epic of Gilgamesh is Written Downc. 2100–2050 BC Code of Ur‐Nammu, Oldest Known Law Codec. 1900 BC Abram (Abraham) Leads Hebrews From Ur to Canaanc. 1754 BC Law Code of Hammurabic. 1500 BC Civilization Appears in Yellow River Valleyc. 1446 BC One Possible Date for Hebrew Exodus from Egyptc. 1393 BC Birth of Mosesc. 1270 BC One Possible Date for Hebrew Exodus from Egyptc. 1024–930 BC United Kingdom of Israel722 BC Assyria Conquers northern Kingdom of Israel587 BC Babylonians Capture Jerusalem, Fall of Kingdom of Judah
The story of Western Civilization began during
