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 8

The Medieval Mêlée: The High and Later Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500

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Return of the Kings
Royal authorities strengthened their control over European kingdoms.

Discipline and Domination
Monastic reforms helped reinforce the power of the popes.

Plenty of Papal Power
A reformed papacy claimed authority over the political power of kings.

The Age of Faith and Reason
The medieval Church pushed development of rational methods of learning.

A New Estate
The bourgeois of the towns separated themselves from the estates of clergy, nobles, and peasants.

Not the End of the World
After the Black Death, people increasingly questioned the authorities of manorial lords, the Holy Roman Emperors, and the popes.