Sources for Cultures of the West Volume 1: To 1750

Designed to accompany Cultures of the West: Volume 1: To 1750, Third Edition (2019), and Cultures of the West: Volume 2: Since 1350, Third Edition (2019), by Clifford R. Backman, the third editions of Sources for Cultures of the West, Volume 1: To 1750 and Sources for Cultures of the West, Volume 2: Since 1350 feature approximately six written sources per chapter that highlight key themes in the study of Western civilization. Each of the 189 sources is accompanied by a headnote. Each volume begins with a special unit, "How to Read a Primary Source," that provides students with important advice on how to work with textual documents in studying the past. The third edition includes twenty-one new sources.

Clifford R. Backman is Associate Professor of History at Boston University, where he has been a member of the department since 1989. He is currently at work on a book that traces the development of toleration and interpersonal forgiveness in medieval Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

*=New to this Edition
HOW TO READ A PRIMARY SOURCE
CHAPTER 1. Water and Soil, Stone and Metal: The First Civilizations 10,000-12,000 BCE
1.1 Shamash Hymn, ca. 2000-1600 BCE
1.2 "Poem of the Righteous Sufferer," ca. 2000-1600 BCE
1.3 "Tale of Sinuhe," Earliest MS ca. 1800 BCE
1.4 "Epic of Gilgamesh," 18th Century-7th Century BCE
1.5 From the Laws of Hammurabi, ca. 1772 BCE
1.6 "Loyalist Teaching," ca. 1550-1000 BCE
1.7 Egyptian Book of the Dead: "Negative Confession," in use ca. 1550-50 BCE
1.8 Great Hymn to the Aton, 14th Century BCE
CHAPTER 2. The Monotheists: Jews and Persians 1200-550 BCE
* 2.1 Creating, Destroying, and Renewing the World: Genesis, Chapters 1-8
2.2 Book of Exodus: Moses and Pharaoh, Chapters 7, 11-12, and 14
2.3 Book of Jeremiah, Prophecy to Israel, Chapters 7 and 8, written ca. 6th Century BCE
2.4 First Book of Kings, King Solomon and the Temple, Chapters 6-8, ca.10th Century BCE
* 2.5 The Book of Jonah: Prophecy, Penance, and Resistance, ca. 400 BCE
* 2.6 The Cyrus Cylinder, ca. 539 BCE
CHAPTER 3. The Ancient Greeks: From Arrival to Glory 2000-479 BCE
3.1 Hesiod, Works and Days, last third of 8th Century BCE
3.2 Homer, The Iliad, 8th Century BCE
* 3.3 The Beginning of Historical Writing: Herodotus and Thucydides
3.4 Herodotus on the Egyptians, from the Histories, ca. 450-420 BCE
3.5 Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, early 5th Century BCE
CHAPTER 4. The Classical and Hellenistic Ages 479-30 BCE
4.1 Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (undated; 5th Century)
4.2 Plato, Symposium, 385-380 BCE
4.3 Aristotle, "On the Elements of Tragedy" (Poetics, Book VI), ca. 335 BCE
4.4 Diogenes Laërtius, "Life of Zeno of Citium," The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, ca. first half of 3rd Century BCE
4.5 Book of Ezra, Rebuilding the Temple, Chapters 1-3, 5-6, written ca. mid-5th Century BCE
CHAPTER 5. Romans and Republicans 753-27 BCE
* 5.1 The Battle of Cannae (216 BCE), from Livy, From the Founding of the City, Book 22, Chapters 34-57
* 5.2 The Land Law of Tiberius Gracchus (133 BCE)
5.3 Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE
* 5.4 Eulogy for a Wife: "In Praise of Turia" (1st century BCE)
CHAPTER 6. Rome's Empire 27-305 CE
6.1 Epictetus, Enchiridion, I, V, XIV, recorded early 2nd Century CE
6.2 Tacitus, Histories, before 117 CE
6.3 From Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Caligula; Claudius, ca. 119 CE
6.4A Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, ca. 170-180 CE
6.4B The Third-Century Imperial-Succession Crisis
CHAPTER 7. The Rise of Christianity in a Roman World
7.1 Josephus, The Jewish War, ca. 75 CE
7.2 Pliny the Younger, Letters, 97-112 CE
7.3 Celsus/Origen, Contra Celsus, Book I, Chapters 6, 28; Book III, Chapter 62; Book IV, Chapter 73; Book VIII, Chapters 41, 49, 55; ca. 177 CE
7.4A The Nicene Creed, Two Versions
7.4B Minucius Felix, Octavius, Chapter 30, "Ritual Cannibalism Charge against Christians," 3rd Century CE
7.5 The Gospel of Thomas, 4th Century, ca. 4th century CE
7.6 Augustine of Hippo, Seventh Discourse on the Gospel of John
CHAPTER 8. The Early Middle Ages
* 8.1 Procopius, Two Views of the Emperor Justinian, from The Secret History c. 554 CE
8.2 Gildas, On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain, ca. 525-ca. 540 CE
8.3 Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks
8.4 Gregory the Great, "Life of St. Benedict," 593 CE
8.5 Bede, Ecclesiastical History of English People, completed ca. 731 CE
8.6 Dhuoda, Handbook for William, 841/843 CE
CHAPTER 9. The Expansive Realm of Islam
9.1 Excerpts from the Qur'an, 7th Century CE
9.2 Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad
9.3 Al-Ghazali, The Deliverer from Error
9.4 One Thousand and One Nights, 12th Century
9.5 Maimonides, Letter to Yemen, 1172 CE
9.6 Usamah Ibn Munqidh, Memoirs, 1183
9.7 Ibn Rushd, On the Harmony of Religious Law and Philosophy
9.8 Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, 12th Century
CHAPTER 10. Reform and Renewal in the Greater West
10.1 Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, written ca. 817-833
10.2 Pope Gregory VII, Letters
10.3 Guibert de Nogent, Gesta Dei, 1107-1108
10.4 Peter Abelard, Sic et Non
10.5 Otto of Freising, The Two Cities
10.6 From "Song of Roland," ca. 1140-ca. 1170
10.7 Trotula of Salerno, Handbook on the Maladies of Women, c. 1200
* 10.8 A Muslim Traveler Describes the Rus: excerpt from Ibn Fadlan's Risala, c. 921 CE
CHAPTER 11. Worlds Brought Down
11.1 Dante Alighieri, Three Speeches from The Divine Comedy
11.2 Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, "Paolo and Francesco in Hell"
11.3 Boccaccio, "The Great Plague"
11.4 Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, after 1373
11.5 From Froissart, "On Flagellants," 1369-1400
11.6 Jakob Twinger, Chronicle, ca. 1382-1420
CHAPTER 12. Renaissances and Reformations
12.1 Petrarca, "Letter to Posterity"
12.2 From Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (Mad Orlando), 1516
12.3 Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, ca. 1517
12.4 Erasmus, "Letter to a Friend," "Julius Excluded from Heaven," and Introduction to the Gospels, first published 1522
* 12.5 Martin Luther, On the Freedom of a Christian, dedicatory letter to Pope Leo X (1520)
12.6 Martin Luther, "Preface to the New Testament," first published 1522
12.7 Francesco Guicciardini, Florence under Lorenzo de' Medici
12.8 Cellini, My Life, 1558-1563
12.9 Vasari, Lives of Artists, first published in 1550, revised and added to until 1568
CHAPTER 13. Worlds Old and New
13.1 Bartolomé de las Casas, A Short Account, written 1542; published 1552
* 13.2 Nicolaus Copernicus, Dedication of The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies to Pope Paul III (1543)
13.3 Galileo Galilei, Letter to Don Benedetto Castelli, December 21, 1613
13.4 John Donne, Sermon (December 12, 1626); "To His Mistress Going to Bed" (1633)
13.5 Descartes, A Discourse on Method, 1637
13.6 The Jesuit Relations, French North America, 1649
13.7 Thomas Hobbes, "On Natural Law," Leviathan, 1651
CHAPTER 14. The War of All Against All
14.1 John Foxe, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Trial of Anne Askew
14.2 Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, "The Court of Suleiman the Magnificent," 1581
14.3 From Christopher Marlowe, The Massacre at Paris, ca. 1593
14.4 Johannes Junius, Letter to His Daughter and Trial Transcript, 1628
CHAPTER 15. From Westphalia to Paris: Regimes Old and New
15.1 Anne of France, Lessons for My Daughter (late 16th Century)
15.2 Molière, The Misanthrope, first performed 1666
15.3 Cardinal Richelieu, "The Role of the King," Political Testament, ca. 1638, first published 1688
15.4 Jean Domat, Civil Laws According to the Natural Order, 1697
15.5 François Fénelon, The Adventures of Telemachus, 1699