A team of renowned scholar-teachers created The Making of the West to address three of the biggest challenges teachers of western civilization face -- demonstrating how the West has been an evolving entity shaped by global influences; conveying the dynamic interaction of social, political, cultural, and economic history in shaping events over time; and revealing the historical roots of developments in today's world. Through a ground-breaking chronological synthesis, the narrative deftly weaves together the main events, people, and themes of a specific time, thus providing a balanced, easy-to-follow story line. New aids to guide student reading and enhancements to the book's organization bring the essence of western history to the fore in the most accessible edition yet.

Author Biography

LYNN HUNT (Ph.D., Stanford University) is Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History at University of California at Los Angeles. She is the author of "Revolution and Urban Politics in Provincial France" (1978); "Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution" (1984); "The Family Romance of the French Revolution" (1992); and "Inventing Human Rights" (2007). She is also the coauthor or editor of numerous other works on the French Revolution and cultural history. She has been awarded fellowships by the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEH and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She served as president of the American Historical Association in 2002. THOMAS R. MARTIN (Ph.D., Harvard University) is Jeremiah O'Connor Professor in Classics at the College of the Holy Cross. He is the author of "Sovereignty and Coinage in Classical Greece" (1985) and "Ancient Greece" (1996, 2000) and is one of the originators of "Perseus: Interactive Sources and Studies on Ancient Greece" (1992, 1996, and www.perseus.tufts.edu), which was named the EDUCOM Best Software in Social Sciences (History) in 1992. He serves on the editorial board of STOA (www.stoa.org) and as co-director of its DEMOS project (on-line resources on ancient Athenian democracy). He has also appeared on a variety of television documentary programs. A recipient of fellowships from the NEH and the American Council of Learned Societies, he is currently conducting research on the history and significance of freedom of speech in Athenian democracy. BARBARA H. ROSENWEIN (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is professor of history at Loyola University Chicago. She is the author of "Rhinoceros Bound: Cluny in the Tenth Century "(1982); "To Be the Neighbor of Saint Peter: The Social Meaning of Cluny's Property, 909-1049" (1989); "Negotiating Space: Power, Restraint, and Privileges of Immunity in Early Medieval Europe" (1999); "A Short History of the Middle Ages" (2001; 2004); "Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages" (2006); and "Reading the Middle Ages: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World" (2006). She is the editor or coeditor of several works on the Middle Ages and a recipient of Guggenheim and NEH fellowships. She is currently working on a general history of the emotions in the West. R. PO-CHIA HSIA (Ph.D., Yale University) is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of "Society and Religion in Munster, 1535-1618" (1984); "The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany" (1988); "Social Discipline in the Reformation: Central Europe 1550-1750" (1989); "Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial" (1992); and "The World of the Catholic Renewal" (1997). He has edited several volumes on medieval history. He has been awarded fellowships by the Woodrow Wilson International Society of Scholars, the NEH, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Davis Center of Princeton University, the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Academy in Berlin. Currently he is working on the cultural contacts between Europe and Asia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. BONNIE G. SMITH (Ph.D., University of Rochester) is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University. She is the author of "Ladies of the Leisure Class" (1981); "Confessions of a Concierge: Madame Lucie's History of Twentieth-Century France" (1985); "Changing Lives: Women in European History Since 1700" (1989); "The Gender of History: Men, Women and Historical Practice" (1998); "Imperialism" (2000); and "Europe in the Contemporary World" (2007). She is also the co-author and translator of "What Is Property?" (1994), and editor or co-editor of numerous titles of European, world, and women's history, including "Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History" (6 vols. 2007). She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEH, the National Humanities Center, the Davis Center of Princeton University, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Currently she is studying the globalization of European culture and society since the seventeenth century.