This post was contributed by Dr. Chris Brooks, Portland Community College.
Supported by a grant from Open Oregon Educational Resources, I have completed the second edition of an openly licensed textbook on the history of Western Civilization, available through the Open Oregon Resources page, OER Commons, and the Open Textbook Library, as well as my home page: Western Civilization: A Concise History
The three volumes of the textbook cover the history of Western Civilization from ancient Mesopotamia to the recent past, focusing mostly on political history but also considering social, intellectual, and cultural history whenever possible. The revisions that led to the second edition greatly expand coverage on the history of the Middle East and on women’s and gender history in all three volumes. As a “Western Civ” textbook, the bulk of the material focuses on the history of Europe, but whenever possible the narrative considers world-historical patterns. Likewise, with the new revisions the textbook emphasizes the Middle East’s place in “Western” history.
The textbook is released under the Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share-Alike license and is freely available to download, distribute, and modify under the terms of that license.
