Western History Collections Popular Books
Western History Collections Biography & Facts
Western civilization traces its roots back to Europe and the Mediterranean. It is linked to ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and Medieval Western Christendom which emerged during the Middle Ages and experienced such transformative episodes as the development of Scholasticism, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, and the development of liberal democracy. The civilizations of Classical Greece and Ancient Rome are considered seminal periods in Western history. Major cultural contributions also came from the Christianized Germanic peoples, such as the Franks, the Goths, and the Burgundians. Charlemagne founded the Carolingian Empire and he is referred to as the "Father of Europe." Contributions also emerged from pagan peoples of pre-Christian Europe, such as the Celts and Germanic pagans as well as some significant religious contributions derived from Judaism and Hellenistic Judaism stemming back to Second Temple Judea, Galilee, and the early Jewish diaspora; and some other Middle Eastern influences. Western Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, which throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture. (There were Christians outside of the West, such as China, India, Russia, Byzantium and the Middle East). Following the 5th century Fall of Rome, Europe entered the Middle Ages, during which period the Catholic Church filled the power vacuum left in the West by the fall of the Western Roman Empire, while the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire) endured in the East for centuries, becoming a Hellenic Eastern contrast to the Latin West. By the 12th century, Western Europe was experiencing a flowering of art and learning, propelled by the construction of cathedrals, the establishment of medieval universities, and greater contact with the medieval Islamic world via Al-Andalus and Sicily, from where Arabic texts on science and philosophy were translated into Latin. Christian unity was shattered by the Reformation from the 16th century. A merchant class grew out of city states, initially in the Italian peninsula (see Italian city-states), and Europe experienced the Renaissance from the 14th to the 17th century, heralding an age of technological and artistic advance and ushering in the Age of Discovery which saw the rise of such global European empires as those of Portugal and Spain. The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 18th century. Under the influence of the Enlightenment, the Age of Revolution emerged from the United States and France as part of the transformation of the West into its industrialised, democratised modern form. The lands of North and South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand became first part of European empires and then home to new Western nations, while Africa and Asia were largely carved up between Western powers. Laboratories of Western democracy were founded in Britain's colonies in Australasia from the mid-19th centuries, while South America largely created new autocracies. In the 20th century, absolute monarchy disappeared from Europe, and despite episodes of Fascism and Communism, by the close of the century, virtually all of Europe was electing its leaders democratically. Most Western nations were heavily involved in the First and Second World Wars and protracted Cold War. World War II saw Fascism defeated in Europe, and the emergence of the United States and Soviet Union as rival global powers and a new "East-West" political contrast. Other than in Russia, the European empires disintegrated after World War II and civil rights movements and widescale multi-ethnic, multi-faith migrations to Europe, the Americas and Oceania lowered the earlier predominance of ethnic Europeans in Western culture. European nations moved towards greater economic and political co-operation through the European Union. The Cold War ended around 1990 with the collapse of Soviet-imposed Communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In the 21st century, the Western World retains significant global economic power and influence. The West has contributed a great many technological, political, philosophical, artistic and religious aspects to modern international culture: having been a crucible of Catholicism, Protestantism, democracy, industrialisation; the first major civilisation to seek to abolish slavery during the 19th century, the first to enfranchise women (beginning in Australasia at the end of the 19th century) and the first to put to use such technologies as steam, electric and nuclear power. The West invented cinema, television, radio, telephone, the automobile, rocketry, flight, electric light, the personal computer and the Internet; produced artists such as Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Beethoven, Vincent van Gogh, Picasso, Bach and Mozart; developed sports such as soccer, cricket, golf, tennis, rugby and basketball; and transported humans to an astronomical object for the first time with the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon Landing. Antiquity: before AD 500 The Middle Ages Early Middle Ages: 500–1000 While the Roman Empire and Christian religion survived in an increasingly Hellenised form in the Byzantine Empire centered at Constantinople in the East, Western civilization suffered a collapse of literacy and organization following the fall of Rome in AD 476. Gradually however, the Christian religion re-asserted its influence over Western Europe. After the Fall of Rome, the papacy served as a source of authority and continuity. In the absence of a magister militum living in Rome, even the control of military matters fell to the pope. Gregory the Great (c 540–604) administered the church with strict reform. A trained Roman lawyer and administrator, and a monk, he represents the shift from the classical to the medieval outlook and was a father of many of the structures of the later Roman Catholic Church. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he looked upon Church and State as co-operating to form a united whole, which acted in two distinct spheres, ecclesiastical and secular, but by the time of his death, the papacy was the great power in Italy: Pope Gregory the Great made himself in Italy a power stronger than emperor or exarch, and established a political influence which dominated the peninsula for centuries. From this time forth the varied populations of Italy looked to the pope for guidance, and Rome as the papal capital continued to be the center of the Christian world. According to tradition, it was a Romanized Briton, Saint Patrick who introduced Christianity to Ireland around the 5th century. Roman legions had never conquered Ireland, and as the Western Roman Empire collapsed, Christianity managed to survive there. Monks sought out refuge at the far fringes of the known world: like Cornwall, Ireland, or the Hebrides. Disciplined scholarship carried on in isolated outposts like Skellig.... Discover the Western History Collections popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Western History Collections books.
Best Seller Western History Collections Books of 2024
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Buckskin Run
Louis L'AmourFor the westerner trouble came with the territory. Long grass valleys, merciless deserts, sheer rock cliffs, icy streams, hidden trails, dusty towns. These were the proving grounds...
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Three Brides for Three Cowboys Complete Collection
Linda FordFall in love all over again with top selling author Linda Ford’s heartwarming stories about three sisters who find love in the vast Canadian prairie.The Cowboy TutorWith the mortga...
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The Charm School
Susan WiggsAs the ballrooms of 1800s America glitter, romance is afoot…Boston and Rio de Janeiro, 1851 An awkward misfit in an accomplished family, Isadora Peabody yearns to escape her life...
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Harlequin Special Edition October 2017 Box Set 1 of 2
Christine Rimmer, Marie Ferrarella & Wendy WarrenHarlequin® Special Edition brings you three new titles for one great price, available now! These are heartwarming, romantic stories about life, love and family. This Special Editio...
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French Toast
Harriet Welty RochefortPeter Mayle may have spent a year in Provence, but Harriet Welty Rochefort writes from the wise perspective of one who has spent more than twenty years living among the French. Fro...
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Grand Forks
Marilyn Hagerty & The Grand Forks HeraldOnce upon a time, salad was iceberg lettuce with a few shredded carrots and a cucumber slice, if you were lucky. A vegetable side was potatoeswould you like those baked, mashed, or...
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Rebel Outlaw
Carol ArensLOOKING FOR PEACE, FINDING…TROUBLE Colt Wesson Travers is headed for a life of tranquility in Texas. Here, he'll finally escape the obligations demanded by his notorious outla...
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End of the Drive
Louis L'AmourA veteran trail driver, who has survived thundering stampedes and Comanche raids, discovers there’s nothing so dangerous as courting a beautiful woman. A brutally beaten homesteade...
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Steve McQueen
Greg LaurieAn intimate look at movie star Steve McQueen's reckless life of fast cars, women, and drugs all the way up to his dramatic lifechange and terminal cancer diagnosis.Join Greg Laurie...
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Harlequin Historical August 2018 - Box Set 2 of 2
Kathryn Albright, Michelle Willingham & Liz TynerDo you dream of wicked rakes, gorgeous Highlanders, muscled Viking warriors and rugged Wild West cowboys? Harlequin® Historical brings you three new fulllength titles in one collec...
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Susan Wiggs Great Chicago Fire Trilogy Complete Collection
Susan WiggsRevisit the beloved Chicago Fire trilogy in these three sweeping, romantic tales from New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs.THE HOSTAGEDeborah Sinclair is a beautiful, acco...
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The Bounty Hunters
Elmore LeonardThe old Apache renegade Soldado Viejo is hiding out in Mexico, and the Arizona Department Adjutant has selected two men to hunt him down. One Dave Flynn knows war, the land, and ...
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The Thread Collectors
Shaunna J. Edwards & Alyson Richman“An unforgettable story of female strength, hope and friendship. This collaborative work is magnificenta true revelation!” Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Woma...
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Gentle on My Mind
Kim CampbellThe pageturning, neverbeforetold story of Kim Campbell's rollercoaster thirtyfouryear marriage to music legend Glen Campbell, including how Kim helped Glen finally conquer his addi...
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Come Home, Cowboy
Cathy McDavidA COWBOY'S SECOND ACT To provide stability for his two young children, retired rodeo rider Josh Dempsey returns home to his family's Arizona ranch, part of which is used as a ...
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Forever and Ever, Amen
Randy TravisA riveting tale ofunfathomable successgreat joydeep pain, and redemption that can come only from above.From a workingclass background in North Carolina to a job as a cook and ...
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Bride by Mail
Katy Madison27yearold fur trader seeks wife and helpmate." Expecting a plain, dependable woman to reply to his advert, what Jack Trudeau actually gets is pampered fashion plate Olivia Han...
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The Chronicles of the Old West - 4 Historical Books Exploring the Wild Past of the American West
Emerson Hough"The Way to the West" tells the story of the opening of the west, including the accounts of three early Americans Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and Kit Carson. "The Story...
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The Rider of the Ruby Hills
Louis L'AmourA WORD FROM LOUIS L’AMOUR “Almost four decades ago, when my fiction was being published exclusively in ‘pulp’ western magazines, I wrote a number of novellength stories, known...
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Passion of the Western Mind
Richard Tarnas"[This] magnificent critical survey, with its inherent respect for both the 'Westt's mainstream high culture' and the 'radically changing world' of the 1990s, offers a new breakthr...
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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Quentin TarantinoQuentin Tarantino’s longawaited first work of fictionat once hilarious, delicious and brutalis the always surprising, sometimes shocking, novelization of his Academy Award winning ...
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Battleborn
Claire Vaye WatkinsThe extraordinary debut collection from the Guggenheim Awardwinning author of the forthcoming Gold Fame Citrus Winner of the 2012 Story Prize Recipient of the American Acad...
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Shot All to Hell
Mark Lee GardnerShot All to Hell by Mark Lee Gardner recounts the thrilling life of Jesse James, Frank James, the Younger brothers, and the most famous bank robbery of all time. Follow the Wi...
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The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry
Matthew George WalterThis anthology reflects the diversity of voices it contains: the poems are arranged thematically and the themes reflect the different experiences of war not just for the soldiers b...
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The Cowboy Tutor
Linda FordWith the mortgage due and funds scarce, Madge Morgan can't afford distractions. Especially not from Judd Kirk, her sister Louisa's meek tutor andaccording to their mother's planssu...
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A Short History of Decay
E. M. Cioran, Richard Howard & Eugene ThackerE. M. Cioran confronts the place of today's world in the context of human historyfocusing on such major issues of the twentieth century as human progress, fanaticism, and sciencein...
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Lady Outlaw
Stacy HenrieNo one would ever imagine a freshfaced young woman could be robbing stage bandits of their illgotten fortunes. But Jennie Jones is desperate to save her family's ranch from foreclo...
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Her Motherhood Wish
Keli GwynBUILDING A FAMILY En route to the Double T Orphanage to work on its expansion, carpenter Chip Evans and Caroline Hunt discover two orphaned childrenand become their caregivers...
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Mistakes Can Kill You
Louis L'Amour“L’Amour is popular for all the right reasons. His books embody heroic virtues that seem to matter now more than ever.”The Wall Street JournalEdgeofyourseat thrillers from the grea...
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Dreaming of a Western Christmas
Lynna Banning, Kelly Boyce & Carol ArensThree festive stories to make your dreams come true HIS CHRISTMAS BELLE by Lynna Banning Nursemaid to a spoiled Southern belle isn't how loner Brand Wyler imagined spendi...
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The Open Boat
Stephen CraneThough best known for The Red Badge of Courage, his classic novel of men at war, in his tragically brief life and career Stephen Crane produced a wealth of storiesamong them "...
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Simon the Fiddler
Paulette JilesThe critically acclaimed, bestselling author of News of the World and Enemy Women returns to Texas in this atmospheric story, set at the end of the Civil War, about an itinerant fi...
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The Strong Shall Live
Louis L'AmourThey came west to stay, risking their blood to dig the gold, ride the range, conquer the greedy, and carve out a legacy of freedom. Men honed by desert fires and edged by combat wi...
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Desert Death-Song
Louis L'AmourDesert DeathSong compiles some of Louis L’Amour’s greatest stories, many of which have been hard to find in book form. Whether he was writing under his early pen name, Jim Mayo, or...
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Roughing It
Mark Twain, Elizabeth Frank & Mark DawidziakThe celebrated author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn mixes fact and fiction in a rousing travelogue that serves as “a portrait of the artist as ...
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Dakota Series Complete Collection
Linda FordEnjoy these heartwarming, romantic favorites set in Dakota Territory from Linda Ford! Dakota ChildTrapped in a North Dakota blizzard, single mother Vivian Halliday’s prayer for her...
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Wolf Totem
Jiang Rong & Howard GoldblattChina's runaway bestseller and winner of the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize Published in China in 2004, Wolf Totem has broken all sales records, selling millions of copies (alo...