Based on the highly successful A History of Western Society; Understanding Western Society: A Brief History captures students’ interest in the everyday life of the past and ties social history to the broad sweep of politics and culture. Abridged by 30%; the narrative is paired with innovative pedagogy; designed to help students focus on significant developments as they read and review. An innovative; three-step end-of-Chapter study guide helps students master key facts and move toward synthesis. Read the preface.
#2113895 in Books 2011-04-26 2011-04-26Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 228.60 x 22.61 x 6.00l; 1.01 #File Name: 0312569203400 pages
Review
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful. IndispensableBy P. DruckerEspecially in the aftermath of Netanyahu's ill-informed comment about the Grand Mufti's role; Achcar's book is indispensable as a scholarly; painstaking guide to the history.10 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Intruiging ViewpointsBy Mr. A. J. ScholefieldWhile Gilbert tries hard to set himself up as "balanced"; one does find oneself questioning at times how fully one can accept his view-points as such--as is true of any books on such a controversial topic.Overall;however; I did find many very interesting different aspects of the Arab-Israeli situation presented by him;especially as I came off reading a biog. of Golda Meir.For an Australian who has seen the Mabo decision knock "Terra Nullius" on the head; I found it especially intruiging to read many references to "a land without people for a people without land" being one of the Zionist slogans.At times main themes were repeated a little too often but this was still a worthwhile read for anyone looking for a reasonably balanced Arab viewpoint on this issue.13 of 22 people found the following review helpful. Who edited this?By Samuel IsaacsonMy one star is addressed at the poor state of the Kindle edition of Achcar's book. The text is rife with typographical errors: the ligatures 'fi;' 'ffi;' 'ffl;' and 'fl' are often simply rendered 'f.' The word "organization" is almost always spelled "or ga ni za tion." Many words have spurious hyphens and spaces likely inherited from the print edition. Letters with macrons are rendered as enormous images on both the Kindle and the Kindle Android app; so Achcar's transliterations of Arabic are rather jarring to read and are impossible to find when searching. Did Metropolitan Books proofread the electronic text at all?
