This authoritative book presents an engaging and accessible narrative account of the central developments in Western history to 1740. Seamlessly integrating coverage of social, cultural and political history, this book is presented in a flexible chronological organization, helping readers grasp the most significant developments that occurred during a single historical period, laying a useful foundation for the chapters to follow. This volume attempts to reflect the unprecedented impact of globalization on this century by featuring extensive coverage of popular culture, the relationship between Islam and the West, and the contribution of women in the history of Western Civilization. Volume One contains Chs. 1-15 of the Combined Volume: The Birth of Civilization; The Rise of Greek Civilization; Classical and Hellenistic Greece; Rome: From Republic to Empire; The Roman Empire; The Early Middle Ages: Creating a New European Society and Culture; The High Middle Ages; Medieval Society: Hierarchies, Towns, Universities, and Families; The Late Middle Ages: Social and Political Breakdown; Renaissance and Discovery; The Age of Reformation; The Age of Religious Wars; Paths to Constitutionalism and Absolutism: England and France in the 17th Century; New Directions in Thought and Culture in the 16th and 17th Centuries; Successful and Unsuccessful Paths to Power. For use by history career professionals.

DONLAD KAGAN is Sterling Professor of History and Classics at Yale University, where he has taught once 1969. He received the A.B. degree in history from Brooklyn College, the M.A. in classics from Brown University, and the Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University. During 1958-1959 he studied at the American School of Classical Studies as a Fulbright Scholar. He has received three awards for undergraduate teaching at Cornell and Yale. He is the author of a history of Greek political thought, The Great Dialogue (1965); a four-volume history of the Peloponnesian war, The Origins of the Peloponnesian War (1969); The Archidamian War (1974); The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (1981); The Fall of the Athenian Empire (1987); and a biography of Pericles, Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy (1991 ); On the Origins of War (1995), and The Peloponnesian War (2003). He is coauthor, with Frederick W. Kagan, of While America Sleeps (2000). With Brian Tierney and L. Pearce Williams, he is the editor of Great Issues in Western Civilization, a collection of readings. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal for 2002.

STEVEN OZMENT is McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard University. He has taught Western Civilization at Yale, Stanford, and Harvard. He is the author of nine books. The Age of Reform, 1250-1550 (1980) won the Schaff Prize and was nominated for the 1981 National Book Award. Five of his books have been selections of the History Book Club: Magdalena and Balthasar: An Intimate Portrait of Life in Sixteenth Century Europe (1986), Three Behaim Boys: Growing Up in Early Modern Germany (1990), Protestants: The Birth of a Revolution (1992), The Burgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth Century German Town (1999), and Flesh and Spirit: Private Life in Early Modern Germany (1999). His most recent book is Ancestors: The Loving Family of Old Europe (2001 ). A history of Germany, A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People, will be published in January 2004.

FRANK M. TURNER is John Hay Whitney Professor of History at Yale University, where he served as University Provost from 1988 to 1992. He received his B.A. degree at the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. from Yale. He has received the Yale College Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching. He has directed a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute. His scholarly research has received the support of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson Center. He is the author of Between Science and Religion: The Reaction to Scientific Naturalism in Late Victorian England (1974), The Greek Heritage in Victorian Britain (1981), which received the British Council Prize of the Conference on British Studies and the Yale Press Governors Award, Contesting Cultural Authority: Essays in Victorian Intellectual Life (1993), and John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion (2002). He has also contributed numerous articles to journals and has served on the editorial advisory boards of The Journal of Modern History, Isis, and Victorian Studies. He edited The Idea of a University, by John Henry Newman (1996). Since 1996 he has served as a Trustee of Connecticut College.