Discovering the Western Past : A Look at the Evidence : Since 1500

by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, William Bruce Wheeler

This supplemental text, designed for use in any Western civilization course, explores historical material using the "discovery approach," which presents students with a series of historical problems—and the evidence they can use to analyze and solve these problems. Each chapter follows a six-step system that allows students to follow a scholarly historical investigation from beginning to end.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Textbooks

457 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 2007

About the author

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) taught first at Augustana College in Illinois, and since 1985 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she is currently UWM Distinguished Professor in the department of history. She is the coeditor of the Sixteenth Century Journal and the author or editor of more than twenty books, most recently The Marvelous Hairy Girls: The Gonzales Sisters and Their Worlds and Gender in History. She is the former Chief Reader for Advanced Placement World History.

Reviews

[Amanda Swan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the multi-media presentation of history in this text. It's not just text and a few random images, it's text, primary sources (as written by their original authors), charts/graphs/statistics, and images (contemporary paintings, etc., and current photos). My only complaint is all of the images are black and white. All in all, a great primer for budding historians.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

great textbook and author. again, objective views of history with interesting sources.