The Rise of the West

by William H. McNeill

"The most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to recount and explain the whole history of mankind." —H. R. Trevor-Roper, The New York Times Book Review The Rise of the West, winner of the National Book Award for history in 1964, is famous for its ambitious scope and intellectual rigor. In it, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that a number of separate civilizations pursued essentially independent careers, and argues instead that human cultures interacted at every st...