This is a decent (but dry and disorganized) history book
5/11/2006
If I could give this book three and a half stars, I'd rather do that, because the rating truly falls between "It's OK and I liked it."
The main reason for this less-than-steller rating is that the book effectively makes an interesting subject boring. Another reviewer from Barnes and Noble remarked that, though they loved history, they detested this book. That about sums up my sentiment. History had long been one of my favorite subjects, yet I found myself slogging through this book--while others held me spellbound. Of course, if your prof assigns this book, you really have no choice; the author does cover the ENTIRE history of western civ (from the homo erectus to Bush's Iraq war), but in a certain way.
In this book, emphasis is placed on MODERN history, specifically the nineteenth century and the various wars of the twentieth century. Pre-history through the collapse of the Roman Empire is covered--but those subjects only get seven chapters, or less than 25% of the book's length (of 29 chapters). Before chapter seven is even finished, the author moves on to early Christianity and "the dark ages." The Middle Age period continues until chapter 11.
From chapter twelve on, the author focuses more on THEMES than time periods, though he tries to present these themes in appropriate chonological order. For a simple breakdown of the chapters:
1--First Civilizations
2--Ancient Near East
3--Greeks
4--Hellenistic World
5--Roman Republic
6--Roman Empire
7--Medieval World
8--Early Middle Ages 750-1000
9--Growth: High Middle Ages
10--Rise of Kingdoms
11--Crisis: Later Middle Ages
12--Renaissance
13--Reformation
14--World Exploration 1500-1800
15--Search for Order: 1600's
16--Scientific Revolution
17--"Enlightenment"
18--Wars and Social Change: 1700's
19--Revolution--French and American Revolutions
20--Industrial Revolution
21--More Revolution and Romanticism 1815-50
22--Nationalism and Realism 1850-71
23--"Age of Progress" 1871-94
24--Anxiety and Imperialism 1894-1914
25--World War I 1914-1918
26--Between the Wars 1919-39
27--World War II
28--the Cold War
29--Modern World Since 1973
As you can see, a full third of the book is devoted to the past 200 years, so there is clearly a modern history focus. My biggest critism of this book is that is author is much more concerned with themes than presenting the information in a logical way. For instance, the Reformation of the 1500's is covered in chapter 13, but world travel (which began in the 1400's) is covered in the NEXT chapter! When the author turns his attention to modern times, he's all over the place, going from Watergate to 9/11 and then going back and covering the stuff in between.
To be fair, a survey course like the ENTIRE history of western civ is lot of information. However, I've seen this task much better handled by other (more organized) authors. Hopefully, you will be assigned one of THEIR books!
Well done and good prep for CLEP
6/2/2006
This book is an excellent resource for preparing for the Western Civ. CLEP exam. There is a website for the book that has review games and excercises (including my favorite flashcards) for each chapter. My daugher used this book in her freshman year of high school and enjoyed it a lot. She passed the exam with a 67! I recommend using REA's guides as well for the CLEP.