《西方文明史》既紧紧把握了政治发展的线索,同时又兼顾了经济、文化等诸多领域,并运用“新史学”的方法,将底层大众的日常社会生活也囊括其中,力求多层次、多角度地揭示西方文明起源、发展、演进、更新的漫长历程和整体图景。在叙述和阐释西方文明历史的过程中,作者将大多数精力“一直聚焦在拓展出一种对西方文明的可靠的和易读的叙述上”,而并非要将之写成“一部百科全书”。因此,凡是与这一学术主旨不相关的庞杂内容一概不予叙述,而那些被长期忽略了的“普通男女的历史”则被纳入到叙事之中。此外,作者还从文明的“亲缘”关系出发,将斯拉夫文明作为西方文明的组成部分而不是边缘地带来加以叙述。正是基于这样的新理念,该书囊括了历史地理、政治制度、经济样式、地区冲突与战争、宗教、思想观念、文化艺术、社会生活等诸多的内容,让读者对西方文明史的整体轮廓与丰厚积淀有了一个比较清晰的认识。

The West is an idea.It is not visible from space.An astro-naut viewing the blue--and·-white terrestrial sphere can make out the forms of Africa,bounded by the Atlantic,the Indian Ocean,the Red Sea,and the Mediterranean.Australia,the Americas,and even Antarctica are distinct patches of blue-green in the darker waters that surround them.But nothing comparable separates Asia from Europe,East from West.Viewed from 100 miles up,the West itself is invisible.Although astronauts can see the great Eurasian landmass curving around the Northern Hemisphere,the Ural Mountainsmthe theoretical boundary between East and West--appear faint from space.Certainly they are less impressive than the towering Himalayas,the Alps,or even the Caucasus.People,not geology,determined that the Urals should be the arbitrary boundary between Europe and Asia. Even this determination took centuries.Originally,Europe was a name that referred only to central Greece.Gradually,Greeks extended it to include the whole Greek mainland and then the landmass to the north.Later,Roman explorers and soldiers carried Europe north and west to its modern bound-aries.Asia too grew with time.Initially,Asia was only that small portion of what is today Turkey inland from the Aegean Sea.Gradually,as Greek explorers came to know of lands far-ther east,north,and south,they expanded their understand。ing of Asia to include everything east of the Don River to the north and ofthe Red Sea to the south. Western civilization is as much an idea as the West itsel~Under the right conditions,astronauts can see the Great Wall of China snaking its way from the edge of the Himalayas to the Yellow Sea.No comparable physical legacy ofthe West is so mas-sire that its details can be discerned from space.Nor are Western achievements rooted forever in one corner of the world.Ⅵ1at we call Western civilization belongs to no particular place.Its lo.cation has changed since the origins of civilization,tha
…… 正如德国人的人文著述中充满日尔曼民族的自豪感和优越感那样,西方历史学家在撰写他们自己的文明史时,往往会过度褒扬西方人的民族性、制度和文化。在他们的笔下,西方文明通常被看做人类文明发展的主线和轴心,东方文明则自然成为“化外”或“非主流”。M.A.凯什岚斯基(M。A.Kishlallsky)等人的《西方文明史》似乎突破了这一思想束缚和文化囹固,采用一种客观的、联系的和发展的观点来追溯西方文明的历史足迹。这在林林总总的西方文明史的著作当中,不得不说是难能可贵的了。
M.A.凯什岚斯基等人以全新的诠释路径对西方文明的历史加以叙述和论证:西方文明涵盖的地域经历了一个从中希腊地区逐步向欧洲拓展的过程,它的起源与东方密不可分。“西方式”的城市*初是在“西方”之外出现的,西亚两河流域的城市传统和文化遗产,曾是西方古代城市的文明渊源。而拜占庭文明、阿拉伯-伊斯兰文明也与西方文明密不可分。欧亚大陆本无明确的地理分界线,西方文明与东方文明在孕育成长的过程中,原本并无多大的先进与落后之分。只是到了16世纪,欧亚大陆西端才演变成一个不同于近东的文化与知识传统的“熔炉”,将地中海、北欧和西欧融为一体,并开始向海外扩张,成为一种领先发展的文明,在经济样式、政治制度和艺术风格上对非西方的地区产生决定性的影响。
对于西方文明扩张带来的负面效应。作者并不隐晦:当今世界许多*紧迫的问题,跟西方文明的历史进程如影相随,如欧洲殖民主义的残余“在全世界留下了深深的敌意”。发展中的贫穷**在融人世界经济体系的同时,却要在没有希望而只有贫穷的状态中养活世界大多数人口,大量的财富因欧美贷款的高额利息而付诸“西”流。西方世界对东方**和民族的财富资源掠夺导致了东方民族对西方文明的仇视,甚至引起世界范围内的反西方的恐怖主义浪潮。西方文明本身也面临着重重危机:前殖民地的贫困公民涌人欧洲以图改善生活,不仅未能摆脱贫困,反倒备受敌视和种族主义的排斥。西方文明的发展更导致了环境污染以及威胁整个地球和人类文明的核武器的出现。西方社会内部的贫富分化日趋严重,在美国,1%的家庭掌控了全国40%的财富;而在德国,高薪家庭的收入是低薪工人收入的两倍半。因此’“西方文明史并非仅仅是成功的发展史和一个更好世界的创造。即便在我们能够看到的诸如技术、交通和社会复杂性等发展的地区,变化并不总是让情况更好”。
更为值得称道的是,作者并没有因此而带着“怀旧”和“复古”的心态来否定当代西方文明。作者认为,无论西方文明有多少价值和负面影响,西方人都必须继承并合理地运用这笔“丰厚的、复杂的遗产”。要做到这一点,就必须先理解它,这“不仅因为历史是打开未来之门的锁钥,而且是因为理解昨天能够使我们自主地创造明天”。而未来的西方文明的发展,应当吸取历史的教训,体现“不惜个人代价去无私地、自我牺牲地和心甘情愿地帮助他人”的精神。
上述这些观点,无疑都理性地反映了作者对西方文明的流变、现状和未来趋势的辩证思考与人文关怀。当然,由于社会历史观的差异,作者对当代某些历史现象的分析、特别是对上个世纪80年代末世界政治格局巨变的描述有着较为明显的局限,这是我们在阅读中需要认真鉴别的。

Detailed Contents v
Preface xv
Supplements xxiii
About the Authors xxiv
INTRODUCTION: The Idea of Western Civilization 2
1 The First Civilizations 4
2 Early Greece, 2500-500 B.C.E. 24
3 Classical and Hellenistic Greece, 500-100 B.C.E. 42
4 Early Rome and the Roman Republic, 800-146 B.C.E. 64
5 ImperialRome, 146 B.C.E.-192 C.E. 82
6 The Transformation of the ClassicalWorld, 192-500 104
7 The Classical Legacy in the East: Byzantium and Islam 122
8 The West in the Early Middle Ages, 500-900 146
9 The High Middle Ages, 900-1300 166
10 The Later Middle Ages, 1300-1500 186
11 The Italian Renaissance 206
12 The European Empires 226
13 The Reform of Religion 248
14 Europe at War, 1555-1648 266
15 The Experiences of Life in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1650 282
16 The Royal State in the Seventeenth Century 300
17 Science and Commerce in Early Modern Europe 318
18 The Balance of Power in Eighteenth-Century Europe 338
19 Culture and Society in Eighteenth-Century Europe 358
20 The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era, 1789-1815 376
21 Industrial Europe 394
22 Political Upheavals and Social Transformations, 1815-1850 414
23 State Building and Social Change in Europe, 1850-1871 436
24 The Crisis of European Culture, 1871-1914 452
25 Europe and the World, 1870-1914 470
26 War and Revolution, 1914-1920 490
27 The European Search for Stability, 1920-1939 510
28 Global Conflagration: World War II, 1939-1945 530
29 The Cold War and Postwar Economic Recovery, 1945-1970 550
30 The End of the Cold War and New Global Challenges, 1970 to the Present 572
词汇与注释 592
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