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Table of Contents

Please Note: Volume 1 includes Chapters 1-16, Volume 2 includes Chapters 14-30, and Since 1300 includes Chapters 11-30.

Preface

CHAPTER 1 Origins, to 1200 B.C.E.

1-1 A Mesopotamian Creation Myth

The Battle Between Marduk and Tiamat (ca. 2000-1000 B.C.E.)

1-2 The Quest for Eternal Life

The Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2750 B.C.E.)

1-3 Society and Law in Ancient Babylonia

The Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1780 B.C.E.)

1-4 A Declaration of Innocence

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (ca. 2100-1800)

1-5 Life Lessons from an Ancient Egyptian

The Precepts of Ptahotep (ca. 2650 B.C.E.)

1-6 AKHENATON, The Hymn to Aton (ca. 1350 B.C.E.)

1-7 Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur (ca. 2000-1700 B.C.E.)

2-1 The Hebrews Explain Creation

Book of Genesis (ca. 950-450 B.C.E.)

2-2 The Hebrew Law and Covenant

Exodus and Deuteronomy (ca. 950-450 B.C.E.)

2-3 Assyrian Kings Proclaim Their Greatness (ca. 1220-1070 B.C.E.)

2-4 CYRUS OF PERSIA, Ruling an Empire (ca. 550 B.C.E.)

2-5 Book of Samuel 8:1–10:27 (ca. 630-540 B.C.E.)

2-6 A Choice Between Good and Evil

ZOROASTER, Gatha 30: Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds (ca. 600 B.C.E.)

3-1 A Long Journey Home

HOMER, The Odyssey: Odysseus and the Sirens (ca. 800 B.C.E.)

3-2 Moral Instruction and Good Advice

HESIOD, Works and Days (ca. 800 B.C.E.)

3-3 A Clash of Loyalties

SOPHOCLES, Antigone (441 B.C.E.)

3-4 THUCYDIDES, The History of the Peloponnesian War: Pericles’s Funeral Oration (ca. 400 B.C.E.)

3-5 PLATO, The Republic: The Allegory of the Cave (ca. 360 B.C.E.)

3-6 Choosing the Best State

ARISTOTLE, Politics: Democracy (ca. 340 B.C.E.)

4-1 Remembering a Legend

EPHIPPUS OF OLYNTHUS, On the Burial of Alexander and Hephaestion: Ephippus of Olynthus Remembers Alexander the Great (ca. 323 B.C.E.)

4-2 A Jewish Response to Hellenistic Rule

First and Second Books of the Maccabees (ca. 124-100 B.C.E.)

4-3 DIOGENES LAERTIUS, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers: Diogenes of Sinope, the Cynic (ca. 300-200 B.C.E.)

4-4 EPICURUS, The Principal Doctrines of Epicureanism (ca. 306 B.C.E.)

4-5 EPICTETUS, Encheiridion, or The Manual (ca. 100 C.E.)

4-6 A Greek View of Byzantium

POLYBIUS, A Greek Historian Describes Byzantium’s Contribution to Regional Trade (ca. 170-118 B.C.E.)

5-1 The Moral Roots of the Republic

LIVY, The Rape of Lucretia (ca. 27-25 B.C.E.)

5-2 Roman Family Values

POLYBIUS, The Histories (ca. 160-140 B.C.E.)

5-3 An Effort to Resolve Social Conflict

The Laws of the Twelve Tables (449 B.C.E.)

5-4 Life in a Roman City

SENECA, The Sounds of a Roman Bath (ca. 50 C.E.)

5-5- APPIAN OF ALEXANDRIA, The Civil Wars (ca. 100 C.E.)

5-6 PLUTARCH, On Julius Caesar, a Man of Unlimited Ambition (ca. 44 B.C.E.)

6-1 Romans and Barbarians

TACITUS, Germania (ca. 100 C.E.)

6-2 A Roman Seeks the Aid of an Egyptian Goddess

APULEIUS, The Golden Ass: The Veneration of Isis (ca. 170 C.E.)

6-3 The Gospel According to Matthew: The Sermon on the Mount (28 C.E.)

6-4 PAUL OF TARSUS, Epistle to the Romans (ca. 57 C.E.)

6-5 Anti-Christian Sentiment

The Alexamenos Graffito (ca. 100 C.E.)

7-1 Church and State in Late Antiquity

SAINT AMBROSE OF MILAN, Emperor Theodosius Brought to Heel (390)

7-2 Rules for Monastic Living

SAINT BENEDICT OF NURSIA, The Rule of Saint Benedict (529)

7-3 Contrasting the Works of God with Those of Men

SAINT AUGUSTINE, City of God: The Two Cities (413-426)

7-4 Converting the Germanic Tribes to Catholicism

GREGORY OF TOURS, History of the Franks (593-594)

7-5 EMPEROR JUSTINIAN, The Institutes of Justinian (529-533)

7-6 PROCOPIUS OF CAESAREA, The Secret History (ca. 550)

8-1 A Muslim Describes the Conquest of Spain

IBN ABD-EL-HAKEM, The Conquest of Spain (ca. 870)

8-2 An Arab Account of the Frankish Defense of Gaul

ANONYMOUS ARAB SOURCE, The Battle of Poitiers (ca. 732)

8-3 WILLIBALD, Saint Boniface Destroys the Oak of Thor (ca. 750)

8-4 CHARLEMAGNE, Capitulary for Saxony (ca. 775-790)

8-5 Instructions for Royal Envoys

CHARLEMAGNE, General Capitulary for the Missi (802)

9-1 William the Conqueror Surveys His Kingdom

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: William the Conqueror and the Domesday Book (1086)

9-2 Placing Limits on Royal Power

KING JOHN OF ENGLAND, Magna Carta: The Great Charter of Liberties (1215)

9-3 A Pope and an Emperor Compete for Power

POPE GREGORY VII AND EMPEROR HENRY IV, Mutual Recriminations: The Investiture Controversy Begins (1076)

9-4 A Call for Crusade

ROBERT THE MONK OF RHEIMS, Urban II at the Council of Clermont (ca. 1120)

9-5 GUIBERT OF NOGENT/ANNA COMNENA, Peter the Hermit and the "People’s Crusade" (ca. 1108-1148)

9-6 ANONYMOUS OF MAINZ, The Slaughter of the Jews (ca. 1096)

9-7 A Muslim Historian Recounts the Crusades

ALI IBN AL-ATHIR, The Complete History (1231)

10-1 Life on a Medieval Manor

Manorial Records of Bernehorne (1307)

10-2 Medieval Workers

On Laborers: A Dialogue Between Teacher and Student (ca. 1000)

10-3 Life as a Medieval Guild Member

The Ordinances of London’s Leatherworkers (1346)

10-4 Medieval Clothing Laws

THE COMMUNE OF FLORENCE, A Sumptuary Law: Restrictions on Dress (1373)

10-5 IBN RUSHD (AVERROES), Religion and Philosophy (ca. 1190)

10-6 SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, Summa Theologica: Proof of the Existence of God (1268)

10-7 An Author Relates a Popular Religious Story

JACQUES DE VITRY, The Virgin Mary Saves a Monk and His Lover (ca. 1200)

11-1 The Psychological and Emotional Impact of the Plague

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO, The Decameron: The Plague Hits Florence (ca. 1350)

11-2 A Town Chronicler Describes the Black Death

AGNOLO DI TURA, Sienese Chronicle (1348-1351)

11-3 Social and Economic Unrest in England

The Anonimalle Chronicle: The English Peasants’ Revolt (1381)

11-4 Popular Religious Responses to the Plague

Flagellants in the Netherlands Town of Tournai (1349)

11-5 CATHERINE OF SIENA, Letter to Gregory XI (1372)

11-6 The Debate over Joan of Arc’s Clothes (1429)

12-1 An Italian Admirer of the Classical Past

PETRARCH, Letter to Livy (1350)

12-2 Power Politics During the Italian Renaissance

NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, The Prince (1513)

12-3 A Description of the Ideal Courtier

BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE, The Book of the Courtier (1528)

12-4 A Humanist Prescription for the Education of Princes

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS, The Education of a Christian Prince (1516)

12-5 A Female Author Argues for the Education of Women

CHRISTINE DE PIZAN, The Book of the City of Ladies: Against Those Men Who Claim It Is Not Good for Women to Be Educated (1404)

12-6 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI, Susannah and the Elders (1610)

12-7 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI, Judith and Holofernes (1612)

13-1 Martin Luther Takes a Stand

MARTIN LUTHER, Ninety-five Theses on the Power of Indulgences (1517)

13-2 Reformation Propaganda

HANS HOLBEING THE YOUNGER, Luther as the German Hercules (ca. 1519)

13-3 HEINRICH KRAMER, Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) (1487)

13-4 JEAN BODIN, On the Demon-Mania of Witches (1580)

13-5 Calvin Defines His Protestant Vision

JOHN CALVIN, The Institutes of Christian Religion (1559)

13-6 Training the Soldiers of Christ

IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, Rules for Right Thinking (1548)

14-1 Columbus Sets the Context for His Voyage

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, Diario (1492)

14-2 Cortés Describes the Conquest of the Aztecs

Hernán Cortés, Two Letters to Charles V: On the Conquest of the Aztecs (1521)

14-3 ALVISE DA CA’DA MOSTO, Description of Capo Bianco and the Islands Nearest to It: Fifteenth- Century Slave Trade in West Africa (1455-1456)

14-4 KING NZINGA MBEMBA AFFONSO OF CONGO, Letters on the Slave Trade (1526)

14-5 Circumnavigating the Globe

Navigation and Voyage Which Ferdinand Magellan Made from Seville to Maluco in the Year 1519 (1519-1522)

14-6 A Critique of European "Superiority"

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE, Of Cannibals (1580)

15-1 A French King Establishes Limited Religious Toleration

HENRY IV, Edict of Nantes (1598)

15-2 An Argument for the Divine Right of Kings

JEAN DOMAT, Of the Government and General Policy of a State (1689)

15-3 The English Place Limits on Monarchical Power

The Bill of Rights (1689)

15-4 A Tsar Imposes Western Styles on the Russians

PETER THE GREAT, Edicts and Decrees (1699-1723)

15-5 THOMAS HOBBES, Leviathan (1651)

15-6 JOHN LOCKE, Second Treatise of Civil Government: Vindication for the Glorious Revolution (1690)

16-1 A New Model of the Solar System

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1542)

16-2 A Defense of Science

FRANCIS BACON, On Superstition and the Virtue of Science (1620)

16-3 A Defense of a Sun-Centered Universe

GALILEO GALILEI, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany (1615)

16-4 CHARLES DE SECONDAT, BARON DE MONTESQUIEU, The Spirit of Laws: On the Separation of Governmental Powers (1748)

16-5 JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU, The Social Contract: On Popular Sovereignty and the General Will (1762)

16-6 A Philosophe Argues for Religious Toleration

VOLTAIRE, A Treatise on Toleration (1763)

Authors

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks(Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Madison) is Distinguished Professor of History, emerita, at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She is the long-time Senior Editor of the Sixteenth Century Journal and the author or editor of more than thirty books, including A Concise History of the World. From 2017 to 2019 she served as the president of the World History Association.

Clare Haru Crowston

Clare Haru Crowston (Ph.D., Cornell University) is Professor of history at the University of Illinois. She is the author of Credit, Fashion, Sex: Economies of Regard in Old Regime France and Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675–1791, which won the Berkshire and Hagley Prizes. She edited two special issues of the Journal of Women’s History, has published numerous journal articles and reviews, and is a past president of the Society for French Historical Studies.

John P. McKay

John P. McKay (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is professor emeritus at the University of Illinois. He has written or edited numerous works, including the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize-winning book Pioneers for Profit: Foreign Entrepreneurship and Russian Industrialization, 1885-1913.

Joe Perry

Joe Perry (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is Associate Professor of modern German and European history at Georgia State University. His book Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History appeared in 2010. He is currently writing a history of the Berlin Love Parade and the electronic dance music scene in Germany in the 1990s and 2000s.

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