Concise Survey of Western Civilization, Combined Edition - 4th Edition by Brian A Pavlac (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- This book describes our Western heritage through interpretive themes of "supremacies and diversities.
- About the Author: Brian A. Pavlac is professor emeritus of history from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he had served as chair of the department, director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, and a Herve A. LeBlanc Distinguished Service Professor.
- 618 Pages
- History, Ancient
Description
About the Book
This book describes our Western heritage through interpretive themes of "supremacies and diversities." "Supremacies" emphasizes power. "Diversities" illustrates the creativity of new ideas and associations. Other topical themes include technology, migration and conquest, polit...Book Synopsis
This book describes our Western heritage through interpretive themes of "supremacies and diversities." "Supremacies" emphasizes power. "Diversities" illustrates the creativity of new ideas and associations. Other topical themes include technology, migration and conquest, political and economic decision making, church and state, and disputes about the meaning of life.
Review Quotes
"Exceptionally well-written, engaging, and accessible. . . . Pavlac includes useful diagrams and charts throughout. . . that break down complex information into visual and easy-to-digest parts. . . . Perhaps the most important attribute of A Concise History Survey of Western Civilization is that this is a text that students would actually read and understand. For many history professors, the first and most fundamental struggle is getting students to read and furthermore to read critically. Thus, the fact that the book is one that students will read, become engaged with, and understand makes it a valuable resource to teachers of Western Civilization."
"This book is the way to go for a one-semester course: a text that's full, but not dense. It's well informed and intelligently written, yet still accessible. The big-picture approach combined with guided questions keep students on track, while the writing is lively, anecdotal, and illustrative--a nice balance of the forest and trees. The concise nature of the text makes it particularly suitable for online or condensed semesters."
The book's conciseness and reasonable cost are very attractive. For a single-semester course that spans the three millennia, I preferred this book to competing texts, which are just too long, with too many 'facts.' Pavlac's writing is also a plus. His informal tone and his skillful movement from paragraph to paragraph give his work a readability that my students like very much.
Written with the skill of a novelist, this book guides the reader step by step through the process of what a historian thinks, does, and interprets. Chapter content establishes the foundation for each future chapter with carefully selected questions, key word definitions, and ideas in bold type. This is the best-written textbook on Western civilization that I have had the pleasure to read in thirty-five years of teaching.
About the Author
Brian A. Pavlac is professor emeritus of history from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he had served as chair of the department, director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, and a Herve A. LeBlanc Distinguished Service Professor. He is the author of Witch Hunts in the Western World: Persecution and Punishment from the Inquisition through the Salem Trials and articles on Nicholas of Cusa and excommunication, editor of and contributor to Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood, co-author of the forthcoming The Holy Roman Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia, and translator of Balderich's A Warrior Bishop of the 12th Century: The Deeds of Albero of Trier.
