The Western Experience offers a thorough, analytical overview of Western civilization, giving students an introduction to the major achievements in Western thought, art, and science as well as the social, political, and economic context for understanding those developments. To demonstrate the connected nature of all histories, these various aspects of history are examined in an integrated way. To help readers develop their reasoning and writing skills, each chapter is constructed to serve as an example of a historical essay: A historical problem is presented and arguments are developed using historical evidence. The ninth edition features many improvements, including the work of Lisa Tiersten in her new chapter on Nineteenth Century Empires.

Preface
Chapter 1 The First Civilizations
Chapter 2 The Forming of Greek Civilizations
Chapter 3 Classical and Hellenistic Greece
Chapter 4 The Roman Republic
Chapter 5 The Empire and Christianity
Chapter 6 The Making of Western Europe
Chapter 7 The Empires of the Early Middle Ages (800-1000): Creation and Erosion
Chapter 8 Restoration of an Ordered Society
Chapter 9 The Flowering of Medieval Civilization
Chapter 10 The Urban Economy and the Consolidation of States
Chapter 11 Breakdown and Renewal in an Age of Plague
Chapter 12 Tradition and Change in European Culture, 1300-1500
Chapter 13 Reformations in Religion
Chapter 14 Economic Expansion and a New Politics
Chapter 15 War and Crisis
Chapter 16 Culture and Society in the Age of the Scientific Revolution
Chapter 17 The Emergence of the European State System
Chapter 18 The Wealth of Nations
Chapter 19 The Age of Enlightenment
Chapter 20 The French Revolution
Chapter 21 The Age of Napoleon
Chapter 22 Foundations of the Nineteenth Century: Politics and Social Change
Chapter 23 Learning to Live With Change
Chapter 24 National States and National Cultures
Chapter 25 Progress and Its Discontents
Chapter 26 Nineteenth-Century Empires
Chapter 27 World War I and the War it Created
Chapter 28 The Great Twentieth-Century Crisis
Chapter 29 The Nightmare: World War II
Chapter 30 The New Europe