The story of the beliefs and practices called 'magic' starts in ancient Iran, Greece, and Rome, before entering its crucial Christian phase in the Middle Ages. Centering on the Renaissance and Marsilio Ficino - whose work on magic was the most influential account written in premodern times - this groundbreaking book treats magic as a classical tradition with foundations that were distinctly philosophical. Besides Ficino, the premodern story of magic also features Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, Aquinas, Agrippa, Pomponazzi, Porta, Bruno, Campanella, Descartes, Boyle, Leibniz, and Newton, to name only a few of the prominent thinkers discussed in this book. Because pictures play a key role in the story of magic, this book is richly illustrated.
Europe's place in the world throughout the narrative and in the primary source feature, The Global Record. The seventh edition has been carefully revised and edited for greater accessibility, and features a streamlined design that incorporates pedagogical features such as focus questions, key terms, and section summaries to better support students of western civilization. The reconceived narrative and restructured organization, featuring smaller, more cohesive learning units, lend to greater ease of use for both students and instructors. History CourseMate, a set of media-rich study tools with interactive eBook that gives students access to quizzes, flashcards, primary sources, videos and more, are available for this new edition. (CourseMate may be bundled with the text or purchased separately.) Available in the following split options: WESTERN CIVILIZATION: BEYOND BOUNDARIES, Seventh Edition Complete, Volume I: To 1715, Volume II: Since 1560, Volume A: To 1500, Volume B: 1300-1815, and Volume C: Since 1789. Available with InfoTrac Student Collections http://gocengage.com/infotrac. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
Sources for Western Society provides a variety of primary sources to accompany A History of Western Society, Eleventh Edition and the new Value edition of A History of Western Society. With over fifty new selections—including a dozen new visual sources—and enhanced pedagogy throughout, students are given the tools to engage critically with canonical and lesser known sources, and prominent and ordinary voices. Each chapter includes a "Sources in Conversation" feature that presents differing views on key topics. This companion reader is an exceptional value for students and offers plenty of assignment options for instructors.
The Enlightenment was the age in which the world became modern, challenging tradition in favor of reason, freedom, and critical inquiry. While many aspects of the Enlightenment have been rigorously scrutinized—its origins and motivations, its principal characters and defining features, its legacy and modern relevance—the geographical dimensions of the era have until now largely been ignored. Placing the Enlightenment contends that the Age of Reason was not only a period of pioneering geographical investigation but also an age with spatial dimensions to its content and concerns. Investigating the role space and location played in the creation and reception of Enlightenment ideas, Charles W. J. Withers draws from the fields of art, science, history, geography, politics, and religion to explore the legacies of Enlightenment national identity, navigation, discovery, and knowledge. Ultimately, geography is revealed to be the source of much of the raw material from which philosophers fashioned theories of the human condition. Lavishly illustrated and engagingly written, Placing the Enlightenment will interest Enlightenment specialists from across the disciplines as well as any scholar curious about the role geography has played in the making of the modern world.
New York Times Bestseller Editors' Choice —New York Times Book Review "Ricks knocks it out of the park with this jewel of a book. On every page I learned something new. Read it every night if you want to restore your faith in our country." —James Mattis, General, U.S. Marines (ret.) & 26th Secretary of Defense The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author offers a revelatory new book about the founding fathers, examining their educations and, in particular, their devotion to the ancient Greek and Roman classics—and how that influence would shape their ideals and the new American nation. On the morning after the 2016 presidential election, Thomas Ricks awoke with a few questions on his mind: What kind of nation did we now have? Is it what was designed or intended by the nation’s founders? Trying to get as close to the source as he could, Ricks decided to go back and read the philosophy and literature that shaped the founders’ thinking, and the letters they wrote to each other debating these crucial works—among them the Iliad, Plutarch’s Lives, and the works of Xenophon, Epicurus, Aristotle, Cato, and Cicero. For though much attention has been paid the influence of English political philosophers, like John Locke, closer to their own era, the founders were far more immersed in the literature of the ancient world. The first four American presidents came to their classical knowledge differently. Washington absorbed it mainly from the elite culture of his day; Adams from the laws and rhetoric of Rome; Jefferson immersed himself in classical philosophy, especially Epicureanism; and Madison, both a groundbreaking researcher and a deft politician, spent years studying the ancient world like a political scientist. Each of their experiences, and distinctive learning, played an essential role in the formation of the United States. In examining how and what they studied, looking at them in the unusual light of the classical world, Ricks is able to draw arresting and fresh portraits of men we thought we knew. First Principles follows these four members of the Revolutionary generation from their youths to their adult lives, as they grappled with questions of independence, and forming and keeping a new nation. In doing so, Ricks interprets not only the effect of the ancient world on each man, and how that shaped our constitution and government, but offers startling new insights into these legendary leaders.
With a collection of over 375 sources, each accompanied by an introductory essay and review questions, this two-volume primary source reader emphasizes the intellectual history and values of the Western tradition. Sources are grouped around important themes in European history--such as religion, education, and art and culture--so that readers can analyze and compare multiple documents. The ninth edition features additional sources by and about women and updates to introductions and review questions. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
Historians use the term "enlightenment" as both a noun and an adjective. Used as a noun, the term designates a period of exceptionally consistent cultural creativity that lasted from the English Revolution of 1688 to the French Revolution of 1789. When used as an adjective, however, as in the "enlightenment tradition," the term denotes a specific attitude of mind that gradually gained ascendancy among European intellectuals during that period.
"America's founding generation was learned in the history and literature of the West and steeped in the English tradition of liberty. Vital Remnants revisits for a new generation the sources of America's greatness and suggests means to restore our weakened foundations."--BOOK JACKET.
