A History of Western Society, Volume A

A HISTORY OF WESTERN SOCIETY grew out of the author's desire to infuse new life into the study of Western civilization. As we wrote in the preface to the first edition, "History is the study of change over time and historians have seen many changes in their own discipline in recent years. Imaginative questions and innovative research have opened up vast new areas of interest and increased historical knowledge rapidly." We noted that the pushing back of the frontiers of knowledge had been especially dramatic in European social history, but that similar advances had characterized economic and intellectual history, while new research and fresh interpretations were simultaneously revitalizing the study of the traditional mainstream of political, diplomatic, and religious development.