Spielvogel's engaging, chronological narrative weaves the political, economic, social, religious, intellectual, cultural, and military aspects of history into a gripping story that is as memorable as it is instructive.

Table of Contents

1. The Ancient Near East: The First Civilizations. 2. The Ancient Near East: Peoples and Empires. 3. The Civilization of the Greeks. 4. The Hellenistic World. 5. The Roman Republic. 6. The Roman Empire. 7. Late Antiquity and the Emergence of the Medieval World. 8. European Civilization in the Early Middle Ages, 750-1000. 9. The Recovery and Growth of European Society in the High Middle Ages. 10. The Rise of Kingdoms and the Growth of Church Power. 11. The Later Middle Ages: Crisis and Disintegration in the Fourteenth Century. 12. Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance. 13. Reformation and Religious Warfare in the Sixteenth Century. 14. Europe and the World: New Encounters, 1500-1800. 15. State Building and the Search for Order in the Seventeenth Century. 16. Toward a New Heaven and a New Earth: The Scientific Revolution and the Emergence of Modern Science.