The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures

Citation

Hunt, L., Martin, T. R., Rosenwein, B. H., & Smith, B. G. (2022). The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures (7th ed., Value Edition, combined). Bedford/St. Martin's.

Edition note: this record identifies the combined paperback Value Edition (ISBN 9781319244521); companion source readers and Achieve access are separate products.

Chapter Summary

The combined volume has twenty-nine chapters. The publisher says Volume 1 contains Chapters 1–17 and Volume 2 Chapters 14–29, so Chapters 14–17 appear in both. The publisher's description presents the book as a Western history with a "superior chronological organization" that tells the story of the cross-cultural, global exchanges that shaped it, and the Value Edition as a two-color volume with the unabridged narrative and select maps and images of the comprehensive text. The contents list a conclusion and a chapter review at the end of every chapter, and the front matter includes a preface ("Why This Book This Way"), an authors' note on the b.c.e./c.e. dating system and a world map.

Chapters 1–4: Early Western Civilization, 400,000–1000 b.c.e.; Near East Empires and the Reemergence of Civilization in Greece, 1000–500 b.c.e.; The Greek Golden Age, c. 500–c. 400 b.c.e.; From the Classical to the Hellenistic World, 400–30 b.c.e.

The book begins with the Stone Age and the cities of the Near East, Egypt, and the Hittites, Minoans and Mycenaeans. It then moves through the Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires, the Greek city-state, Athens' Golden Age and the Peloponnesian War, and Alexander's Macedonia and Hellenistic culture.

Chapters 5–7: The Rise of Rome and Its Republic, 753–44 b.c.e.; The Creation of the Roman Empire, 44 b.c.e.–284 c.e.; The Transformation of the Roman Empire, 284–600 c.e.

Chapter 5 opens with Roman social and religious traditions, including the family, patron-client ties and education, before the Republic, its imperial expansion and civil wars. Chapter 6 covers Augustus and the principate, the early empire and the emergence of Christianity, and the crisis of the third century. Chapter 7 treats the late empire, the Christianization of the empire, the non-Roman kingdoms in the West and the eastern empire under Justinian.

Chapters 8–9: The Heirs of Rome: Islam, Byzantium, and Europe, 600–750; From Centralization to Fragmentation, 750–1050

Chapter 8 follows three heirs of Rome: Islam, a besieged Byzantium and the kingdoms of Western Europe. Chapter 9 covers the Byzantine emperor and Kievan Rus, the Abbasid Caliphate, the Carolingian Empire and the local rule that followed it.

Chapters 10–13: Commercial Quickening and Religious Reform, 1050–1150; The Flowering of the Middle Ages, 1150–1215; The Medieval Synthesis—and Its Cracks, 1215–1340; Crisis and Renaissance, 1340–1492

The high Middle Ages are treated through the commercial revolution, church reform and the Crusades; new schools and churches and vernacular culture; scholasticism, the Mongol takeover and the Great Famine; and finally the plague, the Hundred Years' War, the Great Schism and Renaissance humanism.

Chapters 14–17: Global Encounters and the Shock of the Reformation, 1492–1560; Wars of Religion and the Clash of Worldviews, 1560–1648; Absolutism, Constitutionalism, and the Search for Order, 1640–1700; The Atlantic System and Its Consequences, 1700–1750

These chapters, shared by both volumes, begin with the voyages, conquest of the New World and the Columbian Exchange, then the Reformation. They continue through the wars of religion, the Thirty Years' War and the rise of a scientific worldview, absolutism and constitutionalism, and the Atlantic slave system and world trade, which leads to the early Enlightenment.

Chapters 18–20: The Promise of Enlightenment, 1750–1789; The Cataclysm of Revolution, 1789–1799; Napoleon and the Revolutionary Legacy, 1800–1830

These chapters cover the Enlightenment at its height, state reform and rebellion, the French Revolution from 1787 to the fall of Robespierre, revolution in the colonies, Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna and challenges to the conservative order.

Chapters 21–24: Industrialization and Social Ferment, 1830–1850; Politics and Culture of the Nation-State, 1850–1870; Empire, Industry, and Everyday Life, 1870–1890; Modernity and the Road to War, 1890–1914

The nineteenth century is organised around the industrial revolution and the social question, the revolutions of 1848, nation-building (Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary), the new imperialism and industry of empire, the birth of mass politics, and the debates over sexuality, science and art that preceded the war.

Chapters 25–27: World War I and Its Aftermath, 1914–1929; The Great Depression and World War II, 1929–1945; The Cold War and the Remaking of Europe, 1945–1960s

These chapters cover the Great War and the peace settlement, the 1920s, the Depression, Stalinism and Nazism, the Second World War, the origins of the Cold War, European recovery and decolonization.

Chapters 28–29: Postindustrial Society and the End of the Cold War Order, 1960s–1989; A New Globalism, 1989 to the Present

Chapter 28 treats technological and social change, protest in 1968 and the collapse of communism in the Soviet bloc. Chapter 29 turns to the breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, Europe beyond the nation-state, global migration and a world of new challenges. The publisher says the final chapter now covers the global impact of COVID-19, the rise of eastern nations among the top economies, and the challenges of refugees and immigrants.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–9: Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages

• Greek city-state: the political form whose creation and variations (Sparta, Corinth, Athens) fill much of Chapter 2.
• Christianization: the process in Chapter 7 by which polytheism and Christianity compete and the empire becomes officially Christian.
• Heirs of Rome: the three successors of Chapter 8: the Islamic caliphates, Byzantium and the Western kingdoms.

Chapters 10–17: Middle Ages to the Atlantic System

• Commercial revolution: the growth of fairs, towns and crafts in Chapter 10.
• Scholasticism: the medieval synthesis in Chapter 12.
• Renaissance humanism: the new thought of Chapter 13.
• Columbian Exchange: the biological and cultural exchanges after 1492 in Chapter 14.
• Absolutism and constitutionalism: the competing political models of Chapter 16.
• Atlantic system: the linked slavery, trade and settlement of Chapter 17.

Chapters 18–29: Revolution to the Present

• Enlightenment: the movement whose birth is in Chapter 17 and whose height is in Chapter 18.
• Industrialization and the social question: Chapter 21.
• New imperialism: the scramble for Africa and the imperializing of Asia in Chapter 23.
• Decolonization: the end of empire in Asia, the Middle East and Africa in Chapter 27.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Chronological structure with global links. The publisher describes a chronological organization that tells the story of cross-cultural, global exchanges. The contents show this in chapters that set Islam, Byzantium and Europe side by side, in the Mongol takeover, the Columbian Exchange and the Atlantic system, and in the chapters on decolonization and global migration.
• Social and everyday history in the section headings. The contents include sections such as "The Roman Family", "Women, Slaves, and Metics", "Daily Life in the Rome of Augustus", "Working People's Strategies" and "Cold War Consumerism and Shifting Gender Norms", which show that political narrative is accompanied by social and cultural topics.
• Updated for the seventh edition. The publisher lists new discussion of epidemic infection and the end of Mycenaean civilization, the migrations of Jews in the early Middle Ages, expanded coverage of slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and COVID-19 in the closing chapter.
• A predictable chapter pattern. Every chapter ends with a conclusion and a chapter review, and a brief contents list helps with course planning.

Limitations

• Primary sources are in a separate product. The Value Edition contains the unabridged narrative with select maps and images, while the source documents are part of the companion reader, "Sources of The Making of the West", and the Achieve platform. A course that wants documents has to adopt those separately.
• Reduced illustration. The Value Edition is two-color with select maps and images, as against the full-color comprehensive text, so it is thinner for students who learn from maps and images.
• Very long. Twenty-nine chapters from the Stone Age to the present are more than a single-semester course is likely to use, which is why the publisher also offers separate volumes.
• Centered on Europe. The title and most chapter titles organise the story around Europe and its Mediterranean antecedents. A student who needs sustained non-Western history will need a separate world history text.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the modern European history course list, The Making of the West is a survey that begins long before the modern period: it runs from the Stone Age to the present. Joshua Cole and colleagues' Western Civilizations covers a comparable span from ancient Mesopotamia to the present, so the two are alternatives for a first Western civilization course. John Merriman's A History of Modern Europe runs from the Renaissance to the present and matches Chapters 13–29, and David Mason's A Concise History of Modern Europe is a briefer account from the Enlightenment to the present that parallels Chapters 18–29. Norman Davies's Europe: A History is a comprehensive and innovative survey from ancient times to the present, a more demanding companion for a single reader.

For depth on parts of the book, Richard Evans's The Pursuit of Power treats Europe from 1815 to 1914, the period of Chapters 20–24, and William Doyle's The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction pairs with Chapter 19.

How to Use This Book

The book is a general survey textbook for undergraduates, and the publisher states no prerequisite. It is available as a combined volume or in two volumes, and the Value Edition carries the unabridged narrative.

A practical plan:

• For a modern European history course: start with Chapter 13, on the Renaissance, and read to Chapter 29. Use Chapters 1–12 as background only.
• For a full Western civilization survey: follow the chapters in order, using the conclusion and chapter review at the end of each as a checkpoint.
• For depth: pair a chapter with one of the focused books above, and obtain the companion source reader if the course needs primary documents.