Comprehensive coverage of Western Civilization since 1550 includes Chapters 15-30 of the larger text. Begins with a 10-page preface summarizing the events leading up to this point in history…. More >>
Comprehensive coverage of Western Civilization since 1550 includes Chapters 15-30 of the larger text. Begins with a 10-page preface summarizing the events leading up to this point in history…. More >>
Very easy explanation in book………dont try to read whole book otherwise you will get sleep
Rating: 5 / 5
Jackson J. Spielvogel has no sense of organization whatsoever. And as for those people who read this book for fun, SERIOUSLY need a life. I, however, am using this book as a text book for AP Euro and think it is absolutely ludicrous that we have to use it. It’s confusing and needs to be written better. A LOT better. This book should get -1000000 stars.
Rating: 1 / 5
I’m a teacher and educated general reader who ordered this book after learning of Spielvogel’s popularity and brilliance as a professor at our mutual alma mater: Penn State. It arrived just today. Already, from reading the “intro to students,” I’ve learned what the enigmatic B.C.E. means but that the author chooses to use B.C. (as in A.D.) The voice that wrote that introduction is the voice of the entire text. I am delighted with the heft of the book, the maps and illustrations, and the prospects ahead.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book was horrible for AP Euro, it was not in chronological order and often confused our class. Also, he skipped over some events that were important to know for the AP exam.
Rating: 1 / 5
After being required to read this text for a class, I bought two other history books to which I could compare this one. I thought that Spielvogel was leaving out chunks of history, and revising the ones that he included, and I wanted to double check my facts before making any accusations. Well, boy was I right. This book makes the Publisher’s tag line, “Changing the Way the World Learns” seem a little too true..
If you DO get this book, here are some things to look out for:
1. He is wrong on just about everything that has to do with art or music. He cites obscure artists and names them as the most popular, most of them had Christian themed work.
2. He glorifies Hitler and the Nazis and makes the Holocaust seem like nothing but a minor glitch in history.
3. The author has a degree in Reformation History and seems to be unable to help himself from relating every single event in history to religion. So keep in mind that Voltaire had more to offer history than an anti-Christian revisionist account of the fall of the Roman Empire, as Spielvogel states.
If I were you, I’d buy a different history book to read as well as this one, if this is required for a course. Preferably one that was published for the first time in the thirties or forties and has been updated since, so that its more clear it isn’t revionist history. This one was first published in 2003.
Honestly, if I could give this book less than one star I would, but there’s no such option on amazon.com…
Rating: 1 / 5