Discovering the Western Past: A Look at the Evidence, Volume II: Since 1500

Merry Wiesner-Hanks (Chair, Department of History, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1979. She has published WORKING WOMEN IN RENAISSANCE GERMANY (Rutgers, 1986) as well as numerous articles on women and the Reformation and urban social history. She is co-author of DISCOVERING THE GLOBAL PAST (2012), DISCOVERING THE WESTERN PAST (2008), DISCOVERING THE MEDIEVAL PAST (2003), DISCOVERING THE ANCIENT PAST (2005), DISCOVERING THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY WORLD (2005), and BECOMING VISIBLE: WOMEN IN EUROPEAN HISTORY (1998). She is also the General Editor of the PROBLEMS IN EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION series.

This successful Western history version of the popular Discovering series provides a broad range of both visual and written sources. The unique pedagogical framework includes The Problem, Sources and Method, The Evidence, Questions to Consider, and Epilogue and Evaluation sections in each chapter. This structure promotes critical thinking, sharpens analytical skills, and builds student interest in the subject matter. DISCOVERING THE WESTERN PAST: A LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE, Volume II: Since 1500, Seventh Edition, emphasizes historical study as interpretation rather than memorization of data, with actual documents and artifacts from which students develop answers to historical questions--and learn to think like historians. Significantly revised, this edition includes four new chapters: ¿Royal Power and Overseas Expansion, 1450¿1540¿ (Ch. 2); ¿Motherhood, Nationalism, and Women's Political Role, 1848¿1940¿ (Ch. 10); ¿Cold War Cultures: Visions of the 'Good Life' in East and West¿ (Ch. 13); and ¿Europe and the Iraq War¿ (Ch. 14).

1. The Spread of the Reformation. 2. Royal Power and Overseas Expansion, 1450-1540. 3. Staging Absolutism. 4. The Mind of an Age: Science and Religion Confront Eighteenth-Century Natural Disaster. 5. A Day in the French Revolution: July 14, 1789. 6. Labor Old and New: The Impact of the Industrial Revolution. 7. Two Programs for Social and Political Change: Liberalism and Socialism. 8. Vienna and Paris, 1850-1930: The Development of the Modern City. 9. Expansion and Public Opinion: The Debate over the "New Imperialism." 10. Motherhood, Nationalism, and Women's Political Role, 1848-1940. 11. World War I: Total War. 12. Selling a Totalitarian System. 13. Cold War Cultures: Visions of the "Good Life" in East and West. 14. Europe and the Iraq War.