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Major Problems in Western Civilization, Volume II, 1st Edition

Jackson Spielvogel

  • Copyright 2026
  • {{checkPublicationMessage('Available August 28, 2025', '2025-08-28T00:00:00+0000')}}
Starting At $77.95 See pricing and ISBN options
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Major Problems in Western Civilization, Volume II 1st Edition by Jackson Spielvogel
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Overview

Spielvogel/Spielvogel’s “Major Problems in Western Civilization, Volume II” 1st Edition, is developed with the singular narrative approach. Decades of research selecting core primary documents allow students and instructors to understand critical issues that shaped the history of Western Civilization. Students are introduced to major questions for each time period -- “Was there a Renaissance for Women?” and “Who started the Cold War?” -- through comprehensive introductions. Chapters include annotated timelines, major questions for the entire period and a comparative document exercise with historiographic essays. This diverse framework enables instructors to spend more time focusing on significant discourse. The text engages teachers and students at the highest level. Instructors to fit material into their course structure, including a range of questions for quiz and essay material.

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Meet the Authors

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Jackson Spielvogel

Jackson J. Spielvogel is Associate Professor Emeritus of History at The Pennsylvania State University. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, where he specialized in Reformation History under Harold J. Grimm. His articles and reviews have appeared in journals such as Moreana, Journal of General Education, Catholic Historical Review, Archiv Für Reformationsgeschichte and America Historical Review. He also has contributed chapters or articles to THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF REFORMATION, THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE: A DICTIONARY HANDBOOK, THE SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER ANNUAL OF HOLOCAUST STUDIES and UTOPIAN STUDIES. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and the Foundation for Reformation Research. At Penn State, he helped inaugurate the Western Civilization course as well as a popular course on Nazi Germany. His book, HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY, was first published in 1987 (8th Edition, 2020). In addition, he is the author of WESTERN CIVILIZATION, first published in 1991 (11th Edition, 2021) and co-author (with William Duiker) of WORLD HISTORY, first published in 1994 (9th Edition, 2019). Professor Spielvogel has won five major university-wide teaching awards. During the 1988–1989 year, he held the Penn State Teaching Fellowship, the university's most prestigious teaching award. He won the Dean Arthur Ray Warnock Award for Outstanding Faculty member in 1996 and received the Schreyer Honors College Excellence in Teaching Award in 2000.

What's New

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  • Decades of research for the best documents to create the narrative of Western Civilization make the text an enjoyable reading experience.
  • Extensive chapter introductions provide historical context for students to understand each document, thus allowing students to quickly comprehend its background and origin.
  • Each chapter has an annotated timeline and in-depth document introductions that provide the genre of each document and historic background of the text.
  • Each chapter includes a set of comparative documents that is accompanied by a short essay, enabling students and instructors to engage with primary sources on a deeper level.
  • Each chapter includes two visual documents, in full color, that provide students and instructors the ability to discuss the built environment and culture of each period.

Table of Contents

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11. The Eighteenth Century.
12. The French Revolution and Napoleon.
13. The Industrial Revolution.
14. Europe from 1815–1871.
15. Mass Society and Modern Consciousness, 1871–1894.
16. An Age of Anxiety and Imperialism, 1894–1914.
17. World War I and Interwar Years.
18. World War II.
19. The Cold War and a New Western World.
20. A New World Order: Post 1965.

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  • ISBN-10: 8214148057
  • ISBN-13: 9798214148052
  • RETAIL $77.95

  • ISBN-10: 8214147980
  • ISBN-13: 9798214147987
  • RETAIL $115.95
Instructor Next Steps
Students: Buy now