ANNUAL EDITIONS: Western Civilization, Volume 2, Fourteenth Edition
UNIT 1. The Age of PowerNew! 1. The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Toleration in 1605, Simon Adams, History Today, November 2005
The author investigates the political and religious options of the Catholics in early Jacobean England and asks why some chose to attempt the November, 1605 plot. Was it the product of Catholic discontent or was it a last episode of “Elizabethan extremism”? 2. The 30 Years’ War, Graham Darby, History Review, September 2001
What began as religious war of the Protestants and Catholics in 1618 Hungary, developed into a European war, involving the great powers of Europe—Hapsburgs, France, England, Prussia, and Sweden. Graham Darby recounts the religious, social, economic, and military aspects of the war. New! 3. Cardinal Richelieu: Hero or Villain?, Robert Knecht, History Today, March 2003
Robert Knecht looks at Cardinal Richelieu and considers how his image, carefully crafted during his lifetime, has become that of a demonic schemer. Richelieu controlled public opinion, the press, historical writing, and the theater in order to support the monarchy. Yet, in later centuries he became the villain to men such as Voltaire, the Romantic writers, and the theater in the nineteenth century. 4. From Mercantilism to ‘The Wealth of Nations’, Michael Marshall, The World & I, May 1999
Mercantilism was the practice of measuring a country’s wealth by how much gold and silver bullion it could amass. This theory was challenged by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations, who believed that economies worked best when they had the least government interference. 5. 400 Years of the East India Company, Huw V. Bowen, History Today, July 2000
The East India Company proves to be one of the longest commercial enterprises ever undertaken in Britain. It was chartered in 1600 and finally dissolved after 1857. It was charged with the commercial exploitation and defense in a large part of India. What brought about its demise was excessive administrative costs and charges of misrule. New! 6. John Locke: Icon of Liberty, Mark Goldie, History Today, October 2004
Mark Goldie traces the ways in which people have used and abused the ideas of the philosopher who died 300 years ago. Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1689) argued that a government required the consent of the people and he was hailed as the philosopher of freedom and founder of liberalism. Yet panics of the American and French Revolutions smashed his reputation which was not revived until the second half of the twentieth century. UNIT 2. Rationalism, Enlightenment, and Revolution7. Descartes the Dreamer, Anthony Grafton, Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 1996
Descartes advanced, even epitomized, rationalism. Anthony Grafton explains why this seventeenth century thinker seems modern three and one half centuries after his death. New! 8. Empires Ancient and Modern, Paul A. Rahe, Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2004
Paul Rahe examines what two Frenchman, Voltaire and Montesquieu, had to say in the 18th century about forces that sustain or shatter great powers. Voltaire visited England and then wrote his Philosophical Letters (1734) which compared the religious freedom and government to the absolute monarchy of his native France. Montesquieu also visited England and wrote The Spirit of Laws (1748) and found the chief passions of the English were fondness for liberty and commerce. 9. Declaring an Open Season on the Wisdom of the Ages, Robert Wernick, Smithsonian, May 1997
Although the enemies of the Encylopedists said they were responsible for the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, and the horrors of the modern world, their friends credited them for the rise of liberty, universal suffrage, freedom of the press, and all the progress of the modern world. Robert Wernick recounts the impact Diderot and d’Alembert’s work had on France. New! 10. Thomas Young: The Man Who Knew Everything, Andrew Robinson, History Today, April 2006
Andrew Robinson marvels at the breadth of knowledge of Thomas Young in physics, philology, and physiology. Young first demonstrated that light was a wave; he cracked two scripts of the Rosetta Stone and explained how the human eye focuses on objects. Robinson examines his relationship with his contemporaries, particularly with the French Egyptologist François Champollion and how he has been viewed by later historians. 11. The Passion of Antoine Lavoisier, Stephen Jay Gould, Natural History, June 1989
Many people paid the price for the French Revolution. One was France’s greatest scientist, Antoine Lavoisier. A proponent of some of the Revolution’s early accomplishments, the famous chemist ran afoul of the Committee of Public Safety. Stephen Jay Gould cites Lavoisier’s accomplishments and ponders why in revolutionary times even a brilliant scientist was not immune from political extremists. 12. The First Feminist, Shirley Tomkievicz, Horizon, Spring 1972
Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), cogently argued that the ideals of the Enlightenment and of the French Revolution should be extended to women. This is her story. New! 13. Napoleon: A Classic Dictator?, Laurent Joffrin, History Today, July 2005
Laurent Joffrin looks at the paradoxes surrounding a man who has fascinated the French for two hundred years. With his will, anger, repression and control of public opinion, Napoleon is seen as a classic dictator and favorite of the French republic. UNIT 3. Industry, Ideology, Nationalism, and Imperialism: The Nineteenth Century14. Slavery and the British, James Walvin, History Today, March 2002
Although the British were not the originators, by the mid-eighteenth century they dominated the Atlantic slave trade. This trade was part of the global exchange of goods that added to the “greatness” of England. James Walvin examines the economic and social consequences of the trade. New! 15. Victoria, Lynne Vallone, History Today, June 2002
Lynne Vallone reviews the lie of the woman who occupied the English throne longer than any other individual. She details the conflicts between the demand of masculine government and of the feminine home located within the woman who was from 1837 until her death in 1901, the head of both. 16. Bismarck, Prussia, & German Nationalism, Edgar Feuchtwanger, History Review, March 2001
Otto Von Bismarck masterfully used diplomacy and Prussian armies in order to defeat Austria and France to create the German Reich of 1871. Edgar Feuchtwager assesses Bismarck’s career and his legacy. 17. Napoleon III: ‘Hero’ or ‘Grotesque Mediocrity’?, Roger Price, History Review, March 2003
Louis Napoleon used the memory of Napoleon Bonaparte to get elected president for the Second French Republic. He then staged a coup in 1852, as Napoleon I had done. The Second Empire with its authoritarian and repressive nature and its collapse in the Franco-Prussian war, earned its bad reputation. Author Roger Price details differing views on Napoleon III. 18. The Russians Shall Not Have Constantinople, Roman Golicz, History Today, September 2003
English views on Constantinople varied from the Crimean War against Russia in 1854 to neutrality at the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. But when the Russians seemed to become superior over the Turks by the Treaty of San Stefano, English “jingoism” helped to call the Congress of Berlin. Roman Golicz surveys the changing geo-political situation in England. New! 19. The Evolution of Charles Darwin, Frank J. Sulloway, Smithsonian, December 2005
Frank Sulloway tries to correct the view that Darwin’s visit to the Galapagos Islands immediately persuaded the naturalist of evolution. He says that Darwin had been a creationist and only grasped the full significance of the unique wildlife he found there only after he had returned to London. New! 20. Florence Nightingale as a Social Reformer, Lynn McDonald, History Today, January 2006
Florence Nightingale, heroine of the Crimean War, is most known as founder of the modern profession of nursing and as hospital reformer. Yet her contribution to public healthcare and social reform—a public health care system and disease prevention—is scarcely known. New! 21. Benjamin Disraeli and the Spirit of England, T. A. Jenkins, History Today, December 2004
T.A. Jenkins reviews the life and legacy of Benjamin Disraeli, statesman, novelist, and man-about-town. She relates that his critics viewed him as a cynical adventurer, a political charlatan, motivated by personal ambition but new insights into his character say that Disraeli possessed a clear set of ideas of England’s national character and destiny as well as his own unique position. New! 22. The Incurable Wound, Lizabeth Peak, History Magazine, October/November 2004
Rabies, or hydrophobia, afflicts victims with light sensitivity, paralyzed throat muscles and aggressive behavior. Lizabeth Peak explores the history from the ancient period to the nineteenth century when veterinary medicine emerged. It was only when Louis Pasteur began his groundbreaking experiments was the world to be safer from this plague. 23. Quinine’s Feverish Tales and Trails, Louis Werner, Américas, September/October 2003
Before the discovery of cinchona bark, malaria had no known cure and had ravaged the world for centuries. Louis Werner recounts the search for a treatment of the disease, which involved international disputes and theft until quinine was finally synthesized. UNIT 4. Modernism, Statism, and Total War: The Twentieth Century24. The Divine Sarah, Joseph A. Harriss, Smithsonian, August 2001
Born in 1844, Sarah Bernhardt was a sickly child and not expected to live. But live she did and grew to become the first worldwide “superstar diva,” making her reputation as a great tragedienne, mistress of nobles, and political activist. New! 25. Germany, Britain, & the Coming of War in 1914, Richard Wilkinson, History Review, March 2002
Richard Wilkinson asks why the quarrel happened between Germany and Britain? What went wrong and who were the Guilty Men in 1914? The article considers the role of the Kaiser and looks critically at the Anglo-German naval rivalry, considered to be the prime cause of hostility between the two nations. 26. Queen of the Sands, Kerry Ellis, History Today, January 2004
In the turmoil of modern Iraq, one need only turn back the clock to World War I and the remarkable career of Gertrude Bell. She was the first woman graduate from Oxford in Modern History, a Near East traveler, archaeologist, political adviser, and creator of the pro-British kingdom of Iraq at the war’s end. New! 27. Art Deco: High Style, Stanley Meisler, Smithsonian, November 2004
Art Deco was the name given to the commercial, streamlined style that emerged in Europe prior to World War I and lasted until World War II. Whereas the previous arty style Art Nouveau involved naturalist themes, Art Deco artists loved machinery and power. They used modern materials such as plastic, chrome, rich fabrics, and gems in patterns of circles, zigzags, squares, bright colors that depicted speed. New! 28. Auschwitz: The Forgotten Evidence, Taylor Downing, History Today, February 2005
In 1944, Allied bombers took pictures of the Nazi Death Camp at Auschwitz. Taylor Downing ponders the uncomfortable questions—if the camp could be seen so clearly from the air why was it not bombed? And why were the gas chambers not destroyed and the killing stopped? Are the Allies to be blamed for a terrible moral lapse in not stopping the genocide of the Jews? New! 29. Contemplating Churchill, Edward Rothstein, Smithsonian, March 2005
Edward Rothstein surveys the life and reputation of Sir Winston Churchill on the opening of the Cabinet War Rooms in London. After the First World War Churchill was considered a failed politician, but his constant warnings about the Nazi menace eventually made him the greatest Wartime Prime Minister. 30. The Mystery of Stalin, Paul Wingrove, History Today, March 2003
How was Josef Stalin able to appear to his comrades as a reticent, patient, and imperturbable; to his allies in war—Churchill and Roosevelt—he was someone they could work with and believe in; to the masses, his picture appears everywhere and he had a unerring capacity to lead them to Communism. It was a false representation, so says Paul Wingrove, who examines different interpretations of Stalin’s character. 31. Kim Philby Had a Remarkable Long Career with British Intelligence—Spying for the Other Side, Richard K. Munro, Military History, June 2001
Although Kim Philby came from an illustrious English family, in his college years at Cambridge, he joined three other young men—Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and Donald McClean—who were all strongly Marxist and pro-Stalinist. These four men became famous Soviet moles, passing information from the British and Americans to the Russians. Richard K. Munro recounts Philby’s activities and his discovery. 32. The World According to Wells, Joel Achenbach, Smithsonian, April 2001
Well known for his science fiction—The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds—H.G. Wells was a futurist and progressive idealist in that he predicted the invention of the A bomb, the fourth dimension, the automobile revolution, a sexual revolution, and the United Nations. Yet, he was criticized for his advocacy of a strong, scientific utopia, which many felt bore a resemblance to the totalitarian regimes of Germany and Russia. UNIT 5. Conclusion: The New Millennium and the Human PerspectiveNew! 33. Beloved and Brave, Kenneth L. Woodward, Newsweek, April 11, 2005
The reverberations of Pope John Paul II’s life and pontificate resounded through every nation on earth. He is seen as a geopolitician, evangelist, and mystical believer, doctrinal disciplinarian, scourge of feminism, and the champion of ecumenicism in this article by Kenneth Woodward. 34. The Rise and Fall of Empires: The Role of Surplus Extraction, Harold Perkin, History Today, April 2002
The key to the formation, survival, and decline of all societies has been their use of surplus income. Without an extraction, by an elite, of products—in the form of food, arms, luxuries, goods, and services—no society could afford a high standard of living. Harold Perkins surveys the rise and fall of societies and wonders if America will last or decline as others have done? New! 35. The Maestro of Time, Patricia Fara, History Today, April 2005
Patricia Fara discusses the centennial of Albert Einstein’s three great scientific papers which revolutionized physics. The first was a new way to describe the movement of atoms and molecules in liquids; the second dealt with the photo-electric effect of light on metals; and the third was relativity which reversed the Newtonian thinking of time and space. 36. ‘You Say You Want a Revolution’, Mikhail Safonov, History Today, August 2003
Music hath charms to sooth the savage beasts might have been another title for this essay that recounts the reasons for the fall of the totalitarian Soviet regime. Mikhail Safonov argues that Beatlemania did more to unravel the government than the Nobel prizewinners Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov. New! 37. Europe’s Mosque Hysteria, Martin Walker, Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2006
Terrorist bombings, riots, and an uproar over satirical cartoons have inspired talk of a Europe under siege by Muslim immigrants. Martin Walker undertakes to demolish three myths of the situation—first is that there is any such phenomenon as European Islam; second is that native Europeans have been so sapped of their reproductive vigor that Muslim immigrants’ higher birthrate threaten to replace traditionally Christian Europe with a Muslim majority; and finally that a shrinking and aging population of native Europeans and a growing population can only be alarming. 38. Folly & Failure in the Balkans, Tom Gallagher, History Today, September 1999
Although Otto von Bismarck said that the Balkans were not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier, for 200 years the major European powers have intervened in the region. The results of this interference created small, weak states while neglecting differing religions, ethnic identities, and rising nationalism. This has led to the difficult situations that now confront the West. 39. The End, Michael D. Lemonick, Time, June 25, 2001
Since the 1960’s scientists discovered that the universe is about 15 billion years old but the question remained—what will happen at the end of time? Will galaxies fly apart forever until all is cold and dark, or will the expansion of the universe reverse direction and worlds will collide? Michael Lemonick recounts several new scientific observations, which lead many to believe that the universe will not end with a bang, but a whimper. New! 40. Why We Study Western Civ, Steven Ozment, The Public Interest, Winter 2005
In this defense of the study of Western Civilization, Steven Ozment says that History is every civilization’s clinical record of human nature and behavior. We study the past not to avoid repeating it but to learn how previous generations survived the same mistakes we make.
