《西方文明史》以比较简洁易懂又具有现代英语特点的英语讲述西方文明的发展历程。全书共分二十五章。本书能使读者在学习西方文明发展史的过程中，学习英语，在学习英语的过程中，了解西方的文化。文化通则英语成，英语成则文化精，事半功倍，曲径通幽。

PREFACE
Chapter 1 THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS
What Is Civilization
Prehistory of Civilization
Oriental Origins
Egypt: The Gift of the Nile
The Fertile Crescent
Nineveh and Babylon
Chapter 2 EARLY GREECE, 2500-500 B.C.E.
Greece in the Bronze Age to 700 B.C.E.
Archaic Greece, 700-500 B.C.E.
Corinth, Sparta and Athens
The End of the Archaic Age
Chapter 3 CLASSICAL AND HELLENISTIC GREECE, 500-100 B.C.E.
War and Politics in the 5th Century B.C.E.
Athenian Culture in the Hellenic Age
Hellenistic Age, 404-323 B.C.E.
The Hellenistic World
Chapter 4 ROME AND ROMAN EMPIRE
The Western Mediterranean to 509 B.C.E.
From City to Empire, 509-146 B.C.E.
Social and Cultural Life in Republican Rome
The Crisis of the Republic
The End of the Republic
The Augustan Age and the Pax Romana
The Rise of Christianity
Chapter 5 THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD AND ITS LEGACY IN THE EAST
The Crisis of the 3rd Century
The Empire Restored
The Collapse of the Western Roman Empire
The Byzantines
The Byzantine Apogee and Decline, 1000-1453
The Rise of Islam
Chapter 6 THE WEST IN THE MIDDLE AGES, 500-1300
Barbarian Kingdoms and the Beginning of Feudalism
Life in the New Europe
The Carolingian Achievement
Europe in the 8th and 9th Centuries
From Empire to Lordships
Feudalism
Medieval Towns
The Emergence of State Power
Chapter 7 THE LATE MIDDLE AGES, 1300-1500
The Emergence of Centralized Monarchs and Nationalism
Life and Death in the Late Middle Ages
The Decline of the Church and Revival of Vernacular Spirit
Chapter 8 THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE, 1350-1550
Renaissance Society
Renaissance Art
Renaissance and Liberal Arts
The Politics of the Italian City-States
Chapter 9 THE EUROPEAN EMPIRES
European Expansion
The Formation of States
The Dynastic Struggles
Chapter 10 THE REFORM OF RELIGION
The Intellectual Reformation
The Lutheran Reformation
The Protestant Reformation
The Catholic Reformation
Chapter 11 EARLY MODERN EUROPE, 1500-1650
The Crisis of the Western States
The Struggle in Eastern Europe
The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648
Economic Life
Private and Community Life
Popular Beliefs and the Persecution of Witches
Chapter 12 THE AGE OF ABSOLUTISM IN EUROPE
Absolute Monarchies
The Crisis of the Royal State
The Zenith of the Royal State
Chapter 13 THE RISE OF NATION STATES
The New Science
Expanding Markets
The Wars for Dominance
The Balance of Power in 18th Century Europe
The Rise of Russia
The Two Germanys
Chapter 14 REVOLUTIONS IN THE ANGLOPHONE WORLD
The English Revolution
The American Revolution
Chapter 15 CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN THE 18TH CENTURY EUROPE
The 18th-Century Culture
The 18th-Century Society
Chapter 16 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE NAPOLEONIC ERA
The Crisis of the Old Regime in France, 1715-1788
The First Stage of the French Revolution, 1789-1792
From the Republic to the Reign of Terror, 1792-1794
The Thermidorean Reaction and the Directory
The Era of Napoleon, 1799-1815
The First Empire and Domestic Reforms
Chapter 17 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The Traditional Western Economy
The Industrial Revolution in Britain
In Continental Europe
In the United States
Chapter 18 SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS AND THE NEW REVOLUTIONS
The Congress of Vienna and Reshaping of Europe
The New Ideologies
Unfinished Task: The Last Bourgeois Revolutions in Europe
Chapter 19 NATION-BUILDING AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE WEST, 1850-1871
Nation-building and Social Change
Reforming European Society
Changing Values and the Force of New Ideas
Chapter 20 THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE IN THE WEST, 1871-1914
Economy and Politics of Mass Society
Modern Cultural Responses
The New World of Science
Chapter 21 THE WESTERN DRIVE FOR DOMINANCE, 1870-1914
The Conflicts and Balance of Power in Eur