Western Civilization I. [antikvár]

PREFACE This book provides a broad introduction to the sources historians use, the kinds of interpretations historians make, and the evolution of Western civilization over the past six thousand years. A large selection of documents, photographs, and maps is presented along with introductions, commentaries, and questions designed to place each selection in a meaningful context and facilitate an understanding of its historical significance. Each selection has been carefully edited to keep the length of the book down while providing a wide variety of materials. The sources have been organized to introduce Western civilization and the discipline of history in several ways. First, the sources provide insights into the major developments in each era. Second, the selections reveal the wide range of historical developments and interpretations: political and intellectual history are balanced with social, economic, and cultural history. Third, the sources indicate how historians apply input from other disciplines, such as psychology or sociology. Finally, the types of sources selected in this book demonstrate the kinds of materials used by historians—not just traditional written documents, but paintings, maps, and artifacts that also can tell a story, provide evidence, or serve as interpretive tools. A brief look at the task facing historians of Western civilization will supply a background to what will be covered in this book. To discover what people thought and did and to organize this into a chronological record of the human past, historians must search for evidence—for the sources of history. Most sources are written materials, ranging from government records to gravestone inscriptions, memoirs, and poetry. Other sources include paintings, photographs, sculpture, buildings, maps, pottery, and oral traditions. In searching for sources, historians usually have something in mind—some tentative goals or conclusions that guide their search. Thus, in the process of working with sources, historians must decide which ones to emphasize. What historians ultimately write is a synthesis of the questions posed, the sources used, and their own ideas. Historians of Western civilization consider their subject to be what is today Europe, along with those offshoots of Europe that have become established in various parts of the