《西方文明史》(第5版)既紧紧把握了政治发展的线索，同时又兼顾了经济、文化等诸多领域，并运用“新史学”的方法，将底层大众的日常社会生活也囊括其中，力求多层次、多角度地揭示西方文明起源、发展、演进、更新的漫长历程和整体图景。在叙述和阐释西方文明历史的过程中，作者将大多数精力“一直聚焦在拓展出一种对西方文明的可靠的和易读的叙述上”，而并非要将之写成“一部百科全书”。因此，凡是与这一学术主旨不相关的庞杂内容一概不予叙述，而那些被长期忽略了的“普通男女的历史”则被纳入到叙事之中。此外，作者还从文明的“亲缘”关系出发，将斯拉夫文明作为西方文明的组成部分而不是边缘地带来加以叙述。

《西方文明史》(第5版)囊括了历史地理、政治制度、经济样式、地区冲突与战争、宗教、思想观念、文化艺术、社会生活等诸多的内容，让读者对西方文明史的整体轮廓与丰厚积淀有了一个比较清晰的认识。

This bust of Socrates portrays himwith the traditional beard of thephilosopher．His features display thetraditiOn that thiS man．whosethoughts were the most beautiful．was nevertheless of rema rkablyhomely appearance．The battle of Agincourt（1415）wasone of the great battles of the HundredYears’War．
The heavily armoredFrench cavalry mel defeat at lhehands of a much smaller force ofdisciplined English pikemen andIongbowmen．
This image of Henry VIII is amongthe most recognizable from an age of mona rchy that began in the sixteenth century and coincided withthe consoI；dations of nations in western Europe and their expansioninto aII CO rners of the g10be Everywhere small principalities and kingdoms were absorbed by theirlarger and more powerful neighbors，and Europe'S military might was ondisplay as far easl as India and asfar west as Peru．
Though Englandplayed but a smalI part in a centurydominated by Spain and France，even its monarch could believe thathe bestrode lhe world fike a colossus．This cartoon depicts the plightof the French peasants．An oldfa rme r iS bowed down Unde rthe weight of the p riviIegeda ristoc racy and cle rgy whilebirds and rabbits，protected byunfair game laws，eat his crops．

Detailed Contents v
Preface xv
Supplements xxiii
About the Authors xxiv
INTRODUCTION: The Idea of Western Civilization 2
1 The First Civilizations 4
2 Early Greece, 2500-500 B.C.E. 24
3 Classical and Hellenistic Greece, 500-100 B.C.E. 42
4 Early Rome and the Roman Republic, 800-146 B.C.E. 64
5 ImperialRome, 146 B.C.E.-192 C.E. 82
6 The Transformation of the ClassicalWorld, 192-500 104
7 The Classical Legacy in the East: Byzantium and Islam 122
8 The West in the Early Middle Ages, 500-900 146
9 The High Middle Ages, 900-1300 166
10 The Later Middle Ages, 1300-1500 186
11 The Italian Renaissance 206
12 The European Empires 226
13 The Reform of Religion 248
14 Europe at War, 1555-1648 266
15 The Experiences of Life in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1650 282
16 The Royal State in the Seventeenth Century 300
17 Science and Commerce in Early Modern Europe 318
18 The Balance of Power in Eighteenth-Century Europe 338
19 Culture and Society in Eighteenth-Century Europe 358
20 The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era, 1789-1815 376
21 Industrial Europe 394
22 Political Upheavals and Social Transformations, 1815-1850 414
23 State Building and Social Change in Europe, 1850-1871 436
24 The Crisis of European Culture, 1871-1914 452
25 Europe and the World, 1870-1914 470
26 War and Revolution, 1914-1920 490
27 The European Search for Stability, 1920-1939 510
28 Global Conflagration: World War II, 1939-1945 530
29 The Cold War and Postwar Economic Recovery, 1945-1970 550
30 The End of the Cold War and New Global Challenges, 1970 to the Present 572
词汇与注释 592

正如德国人的人文著述中充满日尔曼民族的自豪感和优越感那样，西方历史学家在撰写他们自己的文明史时，往往会过度褒扬西方人的民族性、制度和文化。在他们的笔下，西方文明通常被看做人类文明发展的主线和轴心，东方文明则自然成为“化外”或“非主流”。M．A．凯什岚斯基（M。A．Kishlallsky）等人的《西方文明史》似乎突破了这一思想束缚和文化囹固，采用一种客观的、联系的和发展的观点来追溯西方文明的历史足迹。这在林林总总的西方文明史的著作当中，不得不说是难能可贵的了。
M．A．凯什岚斯基等人以全新的诠释路径对

~The West is an idea．It is not visible from space．An astro-naut viewing the blue——and·-white terrestrial sphere can make out the forms of Africa，bounded by the Atlantic，the Indian Ocean，the Red Sea，and the Mediterranean．Australia，the Americas，and even Antarctica are distinct patches of blue-green in the darker waters that surround them．But nothing comparable separates Asia from Europe，East from West．Viewed from 100 miles up，the West itself is invisible．Although astronauts can see the great Eurasian landmass curving around the Northern Hemisphere，the Ural Mountainsmthe theoretical boundary between East and West——appear faint from space．Certainly they are less impressive than the towering Himalayas，the Alps，or even the Caucasus．People，not geology,determined that the Urals should be the arbitrary boundary between Europe and Asia． Even this determination took centuries．Originally,Europe was a name that referred only to central Greece．Gradually,Greeks extended it to include the whole Greek mainland and then the landmass to the north．Later,Roman explorers and soldiers carried Europe north and west to its modern bound-aries．Asia too grew with time．Initially,Asia was only that small portion of what is today Turkey inland from the Aegean Sea．Gradually,as Greek explorers came to know of lands far-ther east，north，and south，they expanded their understand。ing of Asia to include everything east of the Don River to the north and ofthe Red Sea to the south． Western civilization is as much an idea as the West itsel~~Under the right conditions，astronauts can see the Great Wall of China snaking its way from the edge of the Himalayas to the Yellow Sea．No comparable physical legacy ofthe West is so mas-sire that its details can be discerned from space．Nor are Western achievements rooted forever in one corner of the world．Ⅵ1at we call Western civilization belongs to no particular place．Its lo．cation has changed since the origins of civilizatio
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