The Western Heritage Since 1300 12th Edition, AP® Edition ©2020

The Western Heritage Since 1300, published by Pearson, features an exceptionally clear narrative that integrates social and cultural history into a strong political framework and reinforces themes that are fundamental to Western civilization.

  • Emphasizes primary source analysis supported by Document-Based Questions (DBQs)
  • Supports The College Board’s AP European History Course and Exam Description.
  • Hosted digitally on MyLab History with Pearson eText. 
  • Includes numerous digital study aids, chapter review material, primary sources, video clips, map activities, and AP test prep practice. 
  • Tracks student work via teacher’s online gradebook.
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The Western Heritage Since 1300, AP Edition

The Western Heritage Since 1300 is an AP European History program that emphasizes fundamental political and social themes of Western Civilization.

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A strong narrative integrates key political and cultural themes in AP European history.

Each chapter includes an outline, learning objectives, and an introduction–together these features provide a succinct chapter overview and road map for study and review.

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An emphasis on visual primary sources deepens student understanding of Western heritage.

Each chapter features three to four primary sources that illuminate key aspects of the time period, events, and people.

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Purpose-built to help students succeed on the AP European History exam.

Revised end-of-chapter questions align with the framework outline.

The Western Heritage Since 1300

  • AP exam practice tests and DBQs
  • AP exam study aids built into every chapter
  • Visual aids frame key historical moments and encourage critical thinking

AP exam practice tests and DBQs

  • Section-ending AP® practice tests
    Section-ending AP® practice tests feature document excerpts and images, multiple-choice questions, short and long answer questions, and a document-based question that cover concepts outlined in the AP European History Curriculum Framework.
  • MyLab® History
    New! Four additional DBQs with seven sources are available for teachers with MyLab® History and have been designed to align to the exam. 
  • Test Prep Workbook for AP®
    New! Test Prep Workbook for AP® fully prepares students for the exam. This new workbook includes tools to ensure student success, including two full AP practice tests.
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AP exam study aids built into every chapter.

  • Succinct chapter overviews provide students with a road map for study and review.
    An outline, learning objectives, and an introduction at the beginning of each chapter provide a succinct overview of the chapter and a road map for study and review.
  • Learning objectives

    Learning objectives are keyed to the main sections and included in the margins throughout the chapter. 

  • Maps show how geography has affected history
    Maps show how geography has affected history and concisely summarize complex relationships and events.
  • Map reading and interpreting skills

    Map reading and interpreting skills are supported by captions, legends, and scales.

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Visual aids frame key historical moments and encourage critical thinking.

  • Analysis and interpretation skills support students
    Analysis and interpretation skills support students as they gain a fuller understanding of Western heritage.
  • Encourages in-class debate to enhance reading skills
    The Compare and Connect feature juxtaposes two or more documents, or a document and an image, that frame the debate of an important question. This feature encourages in-class debate to enhance reading skills, and to analyze documentary and visual evidence.
  • A Closer Look feature examines and analyzes one illustration per chapter
    A Closer Look feature examines and analyzes one illustration per chapter, using leader lines to point out important and historically significant details.
  • The West & The World feature
    The West & The World feature, found at the end of each part, focuses on subjects that compare Western institutions with those in other parts of the world, or discuss how developments in the West have influenced other cultures.
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Take a deeper look into The Western Heritage Since 1300 12th Edition’s features

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Program Overview

Get to know The Western Heritage Since 1300  with MyLab® History with Pearson eText.

MyLab® History from Pearson

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MyLab® History’s continually updated tools improve student success in the course and the AP European History Exam.

Correlation for AP®

Our solutions for AP® are designed to support and correlate the College Board's Course and Exam Descriptions for each corresponding course.

View Correlation

The Western Heritage Since 1300 Resources

  • Test Prep Workbook for AP
    This workbook provides an overview of the AP European History curriculum and examination along with resources that ensure student’s peak performance on the exam. Available for separate purchase.
  • Table of Contents

    PART 1 Europe in Transition, 1300–1750

    1. The Late Middle Ages: Social and Political Breakdown (1300–1453)
    2. Renaissance and Discovery
    3. The Age of Reformation
    4. The Age of Religious Wars
    5. European State Consolidation in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
    6. New Directions in Thought and Culture in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
    7. Society and Economy Under the Old Regime in the Eighteenth Century
    8. The Transatlantic Economy, Trade Wars, and Colonial Rebellion

    PART 2 Enlightenment and Revolution, 1700–1850

    1. The Age of Enlightenment: Eighteenth-Century Thought
    2. The French Revolution
    3. The Age of Napoleon and the Triumph of Romanticism
    4. The Conservative Order and the Challenges of Reform (1815–1832)
    5. Economic Advance and Social Unrest (1830–1850)

    PART 3 Toward the Modern World, 1850–1939

    1. The Age of Nation-States
    2. The Building of European Supremacy: Society and Politics to World War I
    3. The Birth of Modern European Thought
    4. The Age of Western Imperialism
    5. Alliances, War, and a Troubled Peace
    6. The Interwar Years: The Challenge of Dictators and Depression

    PART 4 Global Conflict, Cold War, and New Directions, 1939–2012

    1. World War II
    2. The Cold War Era,Decolonization, and the Emergence of a New Europe
    3. Social, Cultural, and Economic Challenges in the West through the Present
  • Donald Kagan (Author)

    Donald Kagan is Sterling Professor of History and Classics at Yale University, where he has taught since 1969. He received his A.B. degree in history from Brooklyn College, his M.A. in classics from Brown University, and his Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University. During 1958 to 1959 he studied at the American School of Classical Studies as a Fulbright Scholar. He has received three awards for undergraduate teaching at Cornell and Yale.

    He is the author of a history of Greek political thought, The Great Dialogue (1965); a four-volume history of the Peloponnesian war, The Origins of the Peloponnesian War (1969); The Archidamian War (1974); The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (1981); The Fall of the Athenian Empire (1987); a biography of Pericles, Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy (1991); On the Origins of War (1995); and The Peloponnesian War (2003). He is the coauthor, with Frederick W. Kagan, of While America Sleeps (2000). With Brian Tierney and L. Pearce Williams, he is the editor of Great Issues in Western Civilization, a collection of readings. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal for 2002 and was chosen by the National Endowment for the Humanities to deliver the Jefferson Lecture in 2004. 

  • Steven Ozment (Author)

    Steven Ozment is McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard University. He has taught Western Civilization at Yale, Stanford, and Harvard. 

    He is the author of twelve books, including When Fathers Ruled: Family Life in Reformation Europe (1983). The Age of Reform, 1250–1550 (1980) won the Schaff Prize and was nominated for the 1981 National Book Award. 

    Five of his books have been selections of the History Book Club: Magdalena and Balthasar: An Intimate Portrait of Life in Sixteenth Century Europe (1986), Three Behaim Boys: Growing Up in Early Modern Germany (1990), Protestants: The Birth of a Revolution (1992), The Burgermeister’s Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth Century German Town (1996), and Flesh and Spirit: Private Life in Early Modern Germany (1999). 

    His most recent publications are Ancestors: The Loving Family of Old Europe (2001), A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People (2004), “Why We Study Western Civ,” The Public Interest, 158 (2005), and The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation (2011). 

  • Frank M. Turner (Author)

    Frank M. Turner was John Hay Whitney Professor of History at Yale University and Director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, where he served as University Provost from 1988 to 1992. He received his B.A. degree from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. from Yale. 

    He received the Yale College Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching. He directed a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute. His scholarly research received the support of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Center. 

    He is the author of Between Science and Religion: TheReaction to Scientific Naturalism in Late Victorian England (1974); TheGreek Heritage in Victorian Britain (1981), which received the British Council Prize of the Conference on British Studiesand the Yale Press Governors Award; Contesting Cultural Authority: Essays in Victorian Intellectual Life (1993); and John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion (2002). 

    He also contributed numerous articles to journals and served on the editorial advisory boards of The Journal of Modern History, Isis, and Victorian Studies. He edited The Idea of a University by John Henry Newman (1996), Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke (2003), and Apologia Pro Vita Sua and Six Sermons by John Henry Newman (2008). 

    He served as a Trustee of Connecticut College from 1996–2006. In 2003, Professor Turner was appointed Director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. 

  • Gregory F. Viggiano (Contributor)

    Gregory F. Viggiano received his Ph.D. in classics from Yale University and is Associate Professor of History at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he teaches courses on ancient Greece and Rome and Western civilization. 

    With Donald Kagan, he authored Problems in the History of Ancient Greece (2009) and edited Men of Bronze: Hoplite Warfare in Ancient Greece (2013), which has been translated into Spanish (2017). He has published chapters and articles on ancient Greek history and is currently editing A Cultural History of War in Antiquity

    He joined the authorship team of The Western Heritage during preparation of the 12th Edition for publication.

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