Great Issues in Western Civilization Vol 2, From Louis XIV through the Cold War

by Donald Kagan, Brian Tierney, L. Pearce Williams

This collection of edited readings (primary and secondary) is organized chronologically into chapters that each present a "great issue": that is, a question or problem in Western civilization that is of ongoing interest to students and historians. The chapters present a variety of primary source materials - letters, chronicles, poems, government records, treatises - together with interpretations by modern historians representing a variety of points of view. This approach is designed to help students learn to evaluate historical materials critically and form their own opinions on issues. This edition includes a new chapter on the African origins of Western civilization.

Genres: History, Philosophy

760 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

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.