The Western Heritage: From 1648: Fine for the classroom, but not for the beach.....
Written: Jul 25 '06
Product Rating:
Pros: Though dry, it is informative. Has maps, photos, and artwork
Cons: Fine for classwork, but not for casual reading.
The Bottom Line: If you are a college student and taking a World History course, chances are you might have to read this. It's okay for class, but not really entertaining.
alexdg1's Full Review: Donald Kagan, John Reisbord, Frank M. Turner, Stev...
If you are taking (or planning to take) a college-level course on "World History" or "History of Civilization," there are two things you either have noticed or need to be aware of.
First, no matter who your professor is or what his or her teaching style may be, the focus of your class is going to be very Eurocentric, particularly in the course's second half (which is often offered as "World History Since 1715." We live, after all, in a nation colonized and founded by "transplanted Europeans," and most of what we call "American culture," whether it be our form of government, literature, architecture, military tradition, philosophy, and religious beliefs are mostly derived from Europe, particularly Western Europe.
Second, chances are that you'll be told by your professor to read and study from The Western Heritage, written by Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, and Frank M. Turner.
Although this textbook was written as one complete volume, Prentice Hall has published various multi-volume editions so that colleges and universities that divide World History into two or sometimes even three separate courses can have different textbook-assignment options. Therefore, in the two-volume variant, The Western Heritage: Since 1648 is the follow-on to The Western Heritage: To 1715.
Because I had to buy this textbook for the second part of History of World Civilization when I was minoring in history (my major is, no surprise. mass communications/journalism), I wasn't expecting the book to (a) begin with a chapter from the previous volume or (b) to have the pages begin in the high 400s, but that's how Prentice Hall did it. As the book title clearly indicates, it backtracks a bit to 1648, when France was ruled by the Sun King (Louis XIV) and duking it out with England for world supremacy, then goes on to the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the long period of upheaval that included the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the Revolution of 1848, and the decline and fall of various Imperial dynasties, including the Hapsburgs of Austria-Hungary and the Romanovs of Russia. Every major event in European history in the 19th and 20th Centuries is also examined, although where the book ends depends greatly on which edition is sold in college bookstores. (Currently, there are four editions of this book available.)
Kagan, Ozment, and Turner use a robust and revealing, if rather dry narrative to explain how Western history and civilization evolved through the centuries and covers the most important developments in culture, social structure, literature, philosophy, political theories, and the roles of religion, the ruling classes, and the nation-state in the creation of what we call Western civilization. Through words and illustrations, the authors introduce readers to such personalities as Rene Descartes, Sir Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, William Shakespeare, Voltaire, Louis XVI, Spinoza, Nicolae Copernicus, Galileo, Edmund Burke, Napoleon Bonaparte, Vladimir Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and many other prominent leaders and thinkers.
Although it is, after all, a textbook, this is not a book for casual reading; it is well-written but in a just-the-facts, dry, and didactic style that might be off-putting for readers who are more into popular historians such as Cornelius Ryan (A Bridge Too Far) and Stephen E. Ambrose (The Wild Blue, Citizen Soldiers). It does, however, have many illustrations and maps that allow students to better visualize the ebb and flow of historical eras and the rise and fall of great empires.
The textbook, Western Heritage : Volume 2, History Notes, by Donald Kagan, available in Paperback. Published by: Pearson. Edition: 9TH. ISBN10: 0...More at Textbooks.com
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