本书为“北京市高等教育精品教材”，可用作高等学校英语专业高年级文化课教材，旨在通过对西方文化史的纵向考察和对西方思想经典文献的深度阅读，帮助学生拓宽知识面，提高人文素养，培养思辨能力。本书有如下特点：

详尽注释化解原著阅读障碍，精心导读引领学子登堂入室。

在学术训练中延伸英语学习，在英语学习中深化学术训练。

文学、史学、哲学融为一体，阅读、写作、讨论贯穿始终。

走近西方思想巨擘，品味西方思想经典，领悟西方文化精髓。

文化与经典同步展开，历史与思想交相辉映。

Chapter1 Greek Culture

 The Funeral Oration of Pericles Thucydides

 The Apology Plato

 Politics Aristotle

Chapter2 Roman Culture

 Roman Oration Aelius Aristides

 The Meditations Marcus Aurelius

Chapter3 Early Christianity

 The Gospel According to St. Matthew

 The City of God Saint Augustine

Chapter4 Middle Ages

 Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas

 The Christian Way of Life St. Benedict of Nursia

Chapter5 Renaissance

 Oration on the Dignity of Man Pico della Mirandola

 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli

Chapter6 The Reformation

 On Papal Power; Justification by Faith;

 The Interpretation of the Bible Martin Luther

 The Institutes John Calvin

Chapter7 The Scientific Revolution

 Attack on Authority and Advocacy of Experimental Science

 Francis Bacon

 Discourse on Method Rene Descartes

Chapter8 The Enlightenment

 What is Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant

 The Age of Reason Thomas Paine

 The Second Treatise of Government John Locke

Chapter9 Romanticism

 Preface to Lyrical Ballads; The Tables Turned William Wordsworth

 Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Chapter10 Socialism

 The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

 The Old Curiosity Shop Charles Dickens

Chapter11 Liberalism

 The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith

 On Liberty John Stuart Mill

 Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract Thomas Hill Green

Chapter12 Darwinism

 On the Origin of Species; The Descent of Man Charles Darwin

 Social Statics Herbert Spencer

Chapter13 The Challenge to the Tradition

 The Will to Power; The Antichrist Friedrich Nietzsche

 Civilization and Its Discontents Sigmund Freud

Chapter14 The Modernist Movement

 Manifesto of Surrealism Andrr Breton

 Ulysses James Joyce

 The Second Coming W.B. Yeats

 since feeling is first e.e. cummings

Chapter15 The West in an Age of Globalism

 Existentialism Is a Humanism Jean-Paul Sartre

 The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan

Appendix1 A Sketch of Western Civilization

Appendix2 Great Books of the Western World

References

Acknowledgements