Discovering the Western Past to 1789

This successful Western history version of the popular Discovering series provides a broad range of both visual and written sources. The unique framework includes The Problem, Sources and Method, The Evidence, Questions to Consider, and Epilogue and Evaluation sections in each chapter. This structure encourages critical thinking, helps you sharpen important analytical skills, and makes the subject matter more interesting-as well as easier to grasp. The text emphasizes historical study as interpretation rather than memorization of data, with actual documents and artifacts from which you will develop answers to historical questions-and learn to think like a historian.

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.

Andrew D. Evans (Chair, Department of History, State University of New York at New Paltz) received his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 2002. He is the author of ANTHROPOLOGY AT WAR: WORLD WAR I AND THE SCIENCE OF RACE IN GERMANY (Chicago, 2010), and co-author of DISCOVERING THE WESTERN PAST (2015).

William Bruce Wheeler received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1967. He is co-author of DISCOVERING THE GLOBAL PAST (2012), DISCOVERING THE AMERICAN PAST (2012), and DISCOVERING THE WESTERN PAST (2008). He has also written books on Tennessee history and the Tellico Dam.

Julius Ruff (Marquette University) received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina 1979. He is the author of Crime, Justice and Public Order in Old Regime France (Croom Helm, 1984) in addition to many articles and book reviews.