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The Western Heritage: Combined Volume

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"An authoritative account of Western civilizations. "" ""The Western Heritage" provides the broadest possible introduction to Western civilization in a strong, clear narrative. It fosters lively debate about the West, defines how the West has interacted with other cultures, and shows how Western civilization can be used to understand global challenges today. The text integrates social, cultural, and political history, and it provides a flexible presentation to accommodate different teaching and learning approaches. The 11th edition is tied closely to MyHistoryLab, with icons connecting the main narrative to an array of MyHistoryLab resources, including documents, video segments, and interactive maps. The authors welcome Alison Frank, professor of history at Harvard University, to their team for this edition. A better teaching and learning experience
This program will provide a better teaching and learning experience--for you and your students. Here's how:
"Personalize Learning - "The new MyHistoryLab delivers proven results in helping students succeed, provides engaging experiences that personalize learning, and comes from a trusted partner with educational expertise and a deep commitment to helping students and instructors achieve their goals.
"Improve Critical Thinking - "Chapter opening and end-of-chapter study resources help students understand the themes and spark class discussion.
"Engage Students" - Box features included throughout the text encourage the use of visual and textual sources while promoting debate about the West.
"Support Instructors" - Instructor's eText, MyHistoryLab, Instructor's Resource Manual, Test Item File, MyTest, PowerPoint presentations, and Class Preparation are available.
For volume 1 of this text, search ISBN-10: 0205423868For volume 2 of this text, search ISBN-10: 0205434517 Note: MyHistoryLab does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MyHistoryLab, please visit: www.myhistorylab.com or you can purchase a ValuePack of the text + MyHistorylab (at no additional cost): ValuePack ISBN-10: 0205896316/ ValuePack ISBN-13: 9780205896318.

1104 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

20 people are currently reading
391 people want to read

About the author

Donald Kagan

128 books240 followers
Donald Kagan (May 1, 1932 – August 6, 2021) was a Lithuanian-born American historian and classicist at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece. He formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. Kagan was considered among the foremost American scholars of Greek history and is notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War.

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5 stars
53 (23%)
4 stars
65 (28%)
3 stars
67 (29%)
2 stars
26 (11%)
1 star
19 (8%)
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
Profile Image for Josie.
3 reviews
May 5, 2015
This year, I read this book for my AP Euro class. Not the most exciting, but definitely better than the AP US book! I love European history, but my teacher's lectures were what I really looked forward to, and what I think will help me most on the big test coming up in May.
The book really focused on the economic and political aspect of events rather than the actual action, which kind of made me feel like I missed the all the good parts of history and the emotional part of reading I look for in books I read in my free time. While the book stated in maybe two pages all the battles of WWI, there was at least 5 pages of the effects of the Treaty of Paris, leaving out the true horror of war and the emotional effect it has on people.
Overall, the book helped me prepare for tests and filled in the blanks my teacher didn't cover, but lacked action. A good history book compared to others, it reported the facts and events of a history I have learned to love as much as TV drama.
Profile Image for Scott.
1 review
May 26, 2015
It's definitely not for everyone, being its bland and although it tries to go through a chronological order it can be confusing. With this history it's only so detailed so that you can have an understanding of what's happening. In some parts it's either extremely plain language or extremely advanced where they throw in one or two words you've never heard of and both ways they write throw off your understanding of the situation. The documents give some better understanding of like in the contemporary of the time and help out some more; to be honest the documents are easier to read than the actual main text.It still does its job and is informative (there is a little bit of bias but that's what happens when it's a text about european history) however...just takes some effort, I would've given up reading if I had a choice.
Profile Image for Laura.
163 reviews54 followers
June 21, 2017
It was very helpful and had interesting details.
Profile Image for Haritha R.
4 reviews9 followers
November 12, 2021
Lol my AP Euro Textbook. Pretty comprehensive ig? Hip Hughes videos explaining the concepts >>>
Profile Image for Toby Amodeo.
7 reviews
May 6, 2012
This book gave a very basic overview of European history. It failed to include important political developments, concentrating mainly on social changes. While social changes are incredibly important to history, knowing where one is in the political atmosphere is just as important. I would not recommend this book to any AP European History class, where I first encountered it.
Profile Image for Katherine.
21 reviews
May 8, 2015
Well, it cost blood, sweat, tears, I even threw up after the test today, but I'm done.
FREEEEE!
Profile Image for Joseph.
15 reviews
May 31, 2020
Of course, very informative and endlessly intriguing. I could get lost in this book with ease.
Profile Image for jurdan.
151 reviews
Read
April 28, 2022
i hav every right to add this to my goodreads yesssss
Profile Image for Amanda.
7 reviews
July 17, 2023
Rating AP textbooks what I got on the exam part 2. In al honesty though this was an awful textbook. It literally made no sense half the time and was suuuuuper boring.
28 reviews
April 29, 2024
Read almost all of it, and wow it took a while.
Profile Image for Rahma.
55 reviews6 followers
June 15, 2025
I only studied chapters 12, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, and 24 out of the 31 chapters for my civilization course, and I'm not getting back to studying this. :)
Profile Image for Taylor.
85 reviews
May 11, 2010
Finally finished with the AP test, so there is no longer a need to carry this thing round with me everywhere I go. Finally.

As far as history textbooks go, this isn't a bad one, although the bias sometimes irritates me. I don't really have to read this again, so I guess it's not so much of a problem.
28 reviews1 follower
Want to read
April 9, 2015
This was a required text for my college World History class. It's very dry, which makes it difficult to read. I actually fell asleep twice while reading it, which has never happened to me before. Normally I would have sold it once the class was over, but I've held onto it for reference for my genealogy research.
112 reviews26 followers
May 7, 2022
1/5 caused depression
*cries in ap euro*

disclaimer: im doing this out of spite; the textbook isn't all bad lmao

why was everything explained in such a drawn out and roundabout way????? maybe it wasn't, but i have a short attention span and i couldn't focus while reading for the life of me 😭😭😭😭😭😭

either way i got through it and its finally over!!!!!!
Profile Image for Theresa.
8,317 reviews135 followers
July 17, 2018
The Western Heritage: Since 1300
Kagan, Donald
required text for college history course, about american history
Profile Image for Amy.
3,064 reviews625 followers
January 10, 2012
While I enjoyed my class, I wasn't awed by this book. It was good, but nothing to write home about!
Profile Image for Doug Landis.
1 review
May 3, 2013
Great text for political an economic history. I feel it is a little weak on social history though.
Profile Image for Kyle.
55 reviews10 followers
May 15, 2016
It's a European history textbook and reads like one—but it's clear, well-organized, and readable.
Profile Image for Vi Huegerich.
6 reviews
Read
August 13, 2017
idk why there were so many typos specifically in the sections about Russia but w/e history's neat
Profile Image for Lolly.
115 reviews3 followers
May 10, 2022
You brought me so much pain.
Profile Image for Cristy.
65 reviews
Read
February 24, 2013
Jokes, I didn't actually read the whole thing... AP Euro sophomore year, here I come!
Profile Image for Julia.
75 reviews2 followers
May 1, 2017
This isn't the exact edition that I read for my AP European History class, but it is close enough. This is the first textbook that I've read cover to cover. Kagan provides history in an intelligent and understandable way, which is hard to do considering how much history he had to squeeze into such short space.
Profile Image for Alex.
355 reviews1 follower
Read
February 13, 2019
I don't feel obligated to rate the because it was my school book, but I'm more than willing to review it.
I learned what I needed tolerance from it, but for the most part it was...... Dry? It was definitely boring at parts, but it did what it needed to do. I'm just glad to be done with this hunk, to be honest. I'm very ready to move on to something else.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews

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