This supplemental text, designed for use in any Western civilization course, explores historical material using the "discovery approach," which presents students with a series of historical problems—and the evidence they can use to analyze and solve these problems. Each chapter follows a six-step system that allows students to follow a scholarly historical investigation from beginning to end.
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.
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.
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.