This volume provides an introduction to the sources used by, and the interpretations made by historians, and covers the history of Western civilization from the early modern period (1660s) to the 1990s. A broad selection of documents, photographs, charts and maps are presented along with introductions, commentaries, guides and questions designed to place each section in a meaningful context and facilitate comprehension of its historical context.

Chapter Sixteen: Aristocracy and Absolutism in the Seventeenth Century Primary Sources Philipp W. von Hornick, Austria Over All If She Only Will: Mercantilism Frederick William, The Great Elector, A Secret Letter: Monarchical Authority In Prussia Saint-Simon, Memoires: The Aristocracy Undermined in France John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government: Legislative Power Visual Sources The Early Modern Chateau (photo) Pieter de Hooch, Maternal Care (illustration) Secondary Sources G. Durand, Absolutism: Myth and Reality George Macaulay Trevelyan, The English Revolution, 1688-1689 Philippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost: The Early Modern Family Chapter Seventeen: The Scientific Revolution Primary Sources Rene Descartes, The Discourse on Method Galileo Galilei, Letter to Christina of Tuscany: Science and Scripture The Papal Inquisition of 1633: Galileo Condemned Sir Isaac Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy Visual Sources A Vision of the New Science (illustration) Secondary Sources Michael Postan, Why Was Science Backward in the Middle Ages? Sir George Clark, Early Modern Europe: Motives for the Scientific Revolution Bonnie S. Anderson and Judith P. Zinsser, No Scientific Revolution for Women Chapter Eighteen: Politics and Society in the Ancien Regime Primary Sources Frederick the Great, Political Testament Daniel Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman Anonymous, The Slave Trade Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Letter to Lady R., 1716: Women and the Aristocracy Women of the Third Estate Visual Sources Jean-Honore Fragonard, Happy Accidents of the Swing (illustration) Jean Defraine, Act of Humanity (illustration) C.C.P. Lawson, The Battle of Fontenoy (text and Illustration) Secondary Sources John Roberts, The Ancien Regime: Ideals and Realities Leonard Krieger, The Resurgent Aristocracy Jerome Blum, Lords and Peasants Chapter Nineteen: The Enlightenment Primary Sources Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment? Baron d'Holbach, The System of Nature Denis Diderot, Prospectus for the Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences The Philosophe Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary: The English Model Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason: Deism Jean Jaques Rousseau, The Social Contract Visual Sources * Frontispiece of the Encyclopedie (illustration) Joseph Wright, Experiment with an Air Pump (illustration) Joseph II of Austria, Propoganda and the Enlightened Monarch (text and Illustration) Secondary Sources Lester G. Crocker, The Age of Enlightenment Carl L. Becker, The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers Bonnie S. Anderson and Judith P. Zinsser, Women in the Salons H.M. Scott, The Problem of Enlightened Absolutism PART V: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Chapter Twenty: The French Revolution Primary Sources Arthur Young, Travels in France: Signs of Revolution The Cahiers: Discontents of the Third Estate Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes, (Part contents).