Chapters

1. History’s Story
2. Wanderers and Settlers: The Ancient Middle East to 400 B.C.
3. The Chosen People: Hebrews and Jews, 2000 B.C. to A.D. 135
4. Trial of the Hellenes: The Ancient Greeks, 1200 B.C. to A.D. 146
5. Imperium Romanum: The Romans, 753 B.C. to A.D. 300
6. The Revolutionary Rabbi: Christianity, the Roman Empire, and Islam, 4 B.C. to A.D. 1453
7. From Old Rome to the New West: The Early Middle Ages, A.D. 500 to 1000
8. The Medieval Mêlée: The High and Later Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500
9. Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation, 1400 to 1648
10. Liberation of Mind and Body: Early Modern Europe, 1543 to 1815
11. Mastery of the Machine: The Industrial Revolution, 1764 to 1914
12. The Westerner’s Burden: Imperialism and Nationalism, 1810 to 1918
13. Rejections of Democracy: The InterWar Years and World War II, 1917 to 1945
14. A World Divided: The Early Cold War, 1945 to 1980
15. Into the Future: The Contemporary Era, 1980 to the Present

• Epilogue: Why Western Civilization?

Primary Sources for Chapter 9
Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation,
1400 to 1648

Study Guide | Art History | Links

The Purse of Princes

From the Trial of Joan of Arc:  Inquisitors examine the heroine of the Hundred Years War.
Content Question: What specific actions and events turned a simple peasant girl into a leader of armies?
Analysis Question: How is Christian faith entangled in this trial?
Evaluative Questions: How are we to evalate the role of miracles and the divine in the events of Joan’s life and death?

Man as the Measure

Machiavelli’s Prince, Chapter 18:  an opinion about the political utility of lying.
Content Question: What does Machiavelli say about moral qualities princes should have and under what circumstances?
Analysis Question: How do his metaphors help to explain his point?
Evaluative Questions: How much does this reflect the basic principle that “sometimes politicians do the exact opposite of what they say they are doing?”

Heaven Knows

Luther against the Peasants:  The leader of the Reformation tries to stop rebellion.
Content Question: What Luther’s three criticisms of the peasants?
Analysis Question: How would this tract affect Luther’s standing among various groups in society?
Evaluative Questions: How reasonable is Luther’s prediction of what would happen if the peasant's won?

Fatal Beliefs

Pope Pius V’s Bull against Elizabeth (1570):  The pope undermines the Queen of England.
Content Question: What are the pope’s criticisms of the Elizabeth?
Analysis Question: How good Catholics supposed to act?
Evaluative Questions: What alternatives did Elizabeth and the English have to deal with this bull?

God, Greed, and Glory

Bartoleme de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. (1542):  The first Spanish priest ordained in the New World describes the affects his compatriots had on the natives.
Content Question: What specific actions does the author describe the Spanish as doing?
Analysis Question: How does the author frame proper Christianity in this process?
Evaluative Questions: How much is Christianity implicated in the devastation?

For more go to http://lascasas.org/index.htm.