The West in the World, 4th Edition (Sherman)

Chapter 1: The Roots of Western Civilization

Critical Thinking Questions

  1. Before Western Civilization


  1. What is Western civilization? What are its origins and important features?


  2. What were some of the advantageous characteristics of the civilizations that arose in the Middle East?


  3. How did people live and organize their lives in this period?


  4. What were the technological and artistic achievements of people in the Paleolithic period?


  5. What were the advantages of practicing agriculture? What were the disadvantages?


  6. What made the Middle East a favorable region for agriculture and the domestication of animals?


  7. What were some of the changes in social organization that accompanied the rise of agriculture?


  8. What changes in warfare occurred in this period? Why did these changes occur?


  1. Struggling with the Forces of Nature: Mesopotamia, 3000 – ca. 1000 B.C.E.


  1. What aspects of life in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley made irrigation necessary?


  2. What role did ziggurats play in cities like Ur and Uruk?


  3. What was life like for Sumerian women? How did Sumerian law regulate their lives?


  4. How did rulers like Sargon legitimate their rule?


  5. What were Sumerian views on social inequality?


  6. What did Sumerians use writing on tablets for? What do those uses indicate about typical activities in Sumerian society?


  7. How did Hammurabi's code differentiate between social orders? Which groups did it protect?


  8. What contributions did Indo-Europeans make to Western civilization? Which aspects of Fertile Crescent culture did they incorporate into their own?


  1. Rule of the God-King: Ancient Egypt, ca. 3100 – 1000 B.C.E.


  1. What were the advantages of the Nile Valley in comparison to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley? What kinds of resources did it lack?


  2. How did hieroglyphs differ from cuneiform script? In what ways did its uses differ from how the Sumerians used cuneiform?


  3. What was the symbolic significance of the pyramids? What do we know about how they were constructed?


  4. What were some of the problems that Egyptian rulers faced in the period ca. 2200 – 1570 B.C.E.?


  5. How did Egyptians benefit from expansion? What were some of the drawbacks?


  6. How did Akhenaten attempt to reform Egyptian religious practices?


  1. Merchants and Monotheists: The Peoples of the Mediterranean Coast, ca. 1300 – 500 B.C.E.


  1. What was the most important contribution of the Phoenicians to Western civilization? Why is this contribution considered so important?


  2. Why is the Bible difficult to use as a historical source?


  3. What sequence of events led to the creation of a Jewish Diaspora? Why were some Hebrew priests concerned about the effects of living in exile upon Jews and Jewish practices?


  4. Which ideas about religion and the world distinguished Jews from their contemporaries?


  1. Terror and Benevolence: The Growth of Empires, 1200 – 500 B.C.E.


  1. What impact did the disruption of trade in 1200 B.C.E. have on metalworking?


  2. How did the Assyrians excel in warfare? In administration? What techniques did they use to maintain their subject people's loyalty?


  3. What contributions did the Babylonians make to Western civilization?


  4. What were the basic principles of Zoroastrianism?


Sherman: The West in the World, Fourth Edition
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