Chapters

1. History’s Story
2. Wanderers and Settlers: The Ancient Middle East to 400 B.C.
3. The Chosen People: Hebrews and Jews, 2000 B.C. to A.D. 135
4. Trial of the Hellenes: The Ancient Greeks, 1200 B.C. to A.D. 146
5. Imperium Romanum: The Romans, 753 B.C. to A.D. 300
6. The Revolutionary Rabbi: Christianity, the Roman Empire, and Islam, 4 B.C. to A.D. 1453
7. From Old Rome to the New West: The Early Middle Ages, A.D. 500 to 1000
8. The Medieval Mêlée: The High and Later Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500
9. Making the Modern World: The Renaissance and Reformation, 1400 to 1648
10. Liberation of Mind and Body: Early Modern Europe, 1543 to 1815
11. Mastery of the Machine: The Industrial Revolution, 1764 to 1914
12. The Westerner’s Burden: Imperialism and Nationalism, 1810 to 1918
13. Rejections of Democracy: The InterWar Years and World War II, 1917 to 1945
14. A World Divided: The Cold War, 1945 to 1993
15. Into the Future: The Contemporary Era, 1991 to the Present

• Epilogue: Why Western Civilization?

Chapter 4

Trial of the Hellenes: The Ancient Greeks, 1200 B.C. to A.D. 146

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• Link to Primary Sources for this chapter
• Link to Art History for this chapter
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To the Sea
The Hellenes created a merchant economy and expanded out of the Balkan Peninsula to Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The Political Animal
Greek governance moved from aristocracy through tyranny to democracy (even in the more restrictive form of oligarchy).

Metamorphosis
Some Greeks managed to defeat the powerful Persian Empire; then the divisions between democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta resulted in a civil war which provided the opportunity for Macedon to dominate both Greeks and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Cultural Conquest
Despite the break-up of Alexander's empire, Greek art, literature, and philosophy infused their neighbors.