Description: This book focuses on the forces of social change and what they have meant in the lives of the people caught in the middle of them from medieval times through our current era of globalization.

Thoroughly classroom tested, the book is an ideal alternative to the expensive Western Civilization texts that students often find overwhelming. It succinctly illustrates the essential turning points, problems, and accomplishments in the history of Western society.

Drawing on the tradition of historical sociology, the authors explore four basic questions about the individual's relationship to society and history:

--How does society shape us?

--How do the institutions and ideas inherited from previous generations influence--and even constrain--our choices in making history of our own?

--How is social change possible, and what effect does it have on the people who experience it?

--How did the world we inhabit come into being, and what are the implications of its present organization for the future?

The text begins with an introduction to social science methodology to give students the basic intellectual tools they need to comprehend how societies function and change. It then continues, using a social theory approach, to focus on the ideas of the early pioneers of social science, especially Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. The authors move on to the study of Western society as it emerged from the medieval period to become "modern."

And, finally, the reader is brought into the present with chapters on how the West developed a way of life that was fundamentally different from any that had come before.