3rd Edition
The Modernization of the Western World
Covering Western history from the ancient world to the current era of globalization, The Modernization of the Western World describes the forces of social change and what they have meant to the lives of the people caught up in them.
The volume presents the history of Western civilization from a historical sociology perspective, introducing readers to the analyses of thinkers like Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Ferdinand Tönnies, and Max Weber, in order to provide tools for understanding how societies function and change. This application of modernization theory argues, not that what has happened in the West should or even must happen in non-Western societies, but that understanding modernization as a process of social change affords a better understanding of why and how life has changed over the past millennium. The interactions of Western and non-Western societies have had a profound effect on each other; this is the story of the development of a truly global economy. This new edition has been updated to include a final chapter which addresses recent developments — economic disturbances in the global marketplace, cyberwarfare, and the rise of populist movements — testing the relevance of classic modernization theory for today.
Featuring a glossary, maps and illustrations, boxed features, and an extensive index, this book will be of particular interest to students looking to understand world history as well as those interested in historical sociology and modernization theory.
Chapter 1 The Modernization of the Western World
Chapter 2 Modernization and Social Change
Chapter 3 The Ancient and Classical Inheritance
Chapter 4 Europe in the Middle Ages
Chapter 5 The Late Middle Ages and the Transformation of Medieval Society
Chapter 6 The Italian Renaissance
Chapter 7 The Reformation
Chapter 8 Commerce, Cities, and Capitalism
Chapter 9 The Centralization and Rationalization of the Political State
Chapter 10 The Enlightenment
Chapter 11 The French Revolution
Chapter 12 The Industrial Revolution
Chapter 13 Classical Liberalism and the Bourgeois State
Chapter 14 Karl Marx and the Socialist Response to Capitalism
Chapter 15 Nationalism and Nations
Chapter 16 The Age of Empire
Chapter 17 The Great War
Chapter 18 Europe between Wars
Chapter 19 The Rise of Fascism
Chapter 20 Total War
Chapter 21 The Cold War
Chapter 22 Globalization and Social Change
Chapter 23 Terror and Terrorism
Chapter 24 Arguing About History: Can Modernization Theory Help Us Understand the Perplexing Events of Recent Years?
Glossary
Biography
John McGrath is a retired Associate Professor of Social Sciences at Boston University, USA. His publications include The French in Early Florida: In the Eye of the Hurricane (2000).
Kathleen Callanan Martin is a retired Senior Lecturer of Social Sciences at Boston University, USA. Her publications include Hard and Unreal Advice: Mothers, Social Science and the Victorian Poverty Experts (2008).
