Story and History: Western Civilization Since 1550, 1st edition
Title overview
For courses in Western Civilization: Volume 2 (after 1650).
Draw students into Western history through compelling stories
Story and History: Western Civilization Since 1550 takes a unique story-based approached to part 2 of the Western civilization course. Author Robert Davis presents 60 in-depth stories that captivate students and immerse them in the underlying historical issues.
While most texts for Western Civilization semester 2 begin with 1650, Davis stretches to tell the story of the West from 1550 on. Through exploration of the selected historical figures and events, both famous and unknown, the text helps students understand the forces, challenges and ideologies that shaped the West.
Hallmark features of this title
- A consistent, story-based organization guides learners through the history of Western civilization, chapter by chapter.
- An introductory overview lays out the chapter's major themes, individuals and events.
- A transitional section ties the material covered in the introductory overview to the topics and themes explored in the chapter's story section.
- 4 in-depth stories illustrate the themes of each chapter. These intriguing accounts involve readers intellectually and emotionally in the chapter's topic and time period.
- Photos, maps, figures, paintings and their accompanying captions enhance the narrative.
- Chapter learning objectives draw students' attention to the principal issues and themes in both the chapter's introductory overview and its 4 stories.
Key features
Features of Revel
- Brief chapter-opening videos set the stage for the content that follows.
- Archival videos presented throughout the later chapters give students a front-row seat to history.
- A robust interactive map program illustrates events such as the rise of the Russian Empire over a period of time. A pan/zoom feature allows students to zero in on details.
- Interactive chapter review sections help students learn about specific topics. Content includes key term flashcards, an image gallery, a video gallery and review questions.
- An end-of-chapter Source Collection includes a selection of documents relevant to the chapter content. Each document includes header notes, questions and audio. Students can highlight and make notes on the documents.
- Key terms appear in bold. Pop-up definitions within the narrative allow students to see the meaning of a word or phrase while reading, providing context.
Table of contents
1. Premodern Europe and the Ancien Régime
2. God, Government, and War
3. The New Science
4. Europe and the World
5. The Enlightened Century
6. Revolution and Its Discontents
7. The Industrial Revolution
8. The Age of Nations
9. Nineteenth-Century Ideologies and Practicalities
10. Europe's Imperial Age
11. War and Revolution
12. The Totalitarian Tragedy
13. Europe in Flames
14. Europe Divided
15. Europe in the Balance
Author bios
About our authors
Dr. Robert C. Davis finished his undergraduate studies at a private California university in 1970, then spent much of the 1970s and 1980s working as a furniture maker, moving periodically to Europe. He then returned to university studies and earned his PhD in history at Johns Hopkins University in 1989. Having learned the nature, feel, and smell of wood and woodworking, he was attracted to the story of shipwrights and boat building while living in Venice, Italy, and chose this as the topic of his dissertation. He published his first book, Shipbuilders of the Venetian Arsenal, in 1991, and followed this with several more studies focused on Venetian society and popular culture during the 16th and 17th centuries, including The War of the Fists (1994) and The Jews of Early Modern Venice (2001).
While teaching at Ohio State University from 1992 until retiring in 2015, he broadened his interests to encompass Italian and Mediterranean history more generally. While doing so, he co-edited Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy (1998) and co-authored Renaissance People (2011). He also traveled and researched widely around the Italian peninsula, the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. His research and writing were made possible by year-long fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study, Ohio State University, the American Academy in Rome, the Fulbright Foundation, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Since retiring, Davis has lived in Santa Cruz, California, where he has begun writing novels about bandits in sixteenth-century Italy. He spends his spare time walking through the redwoods, listening to the sounds of the Pacific and looking for otters.