The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community

xviii, 829 pp. "William Hardy McNeill (born October 31, 1917) is a noted world historian and author and is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago." - Wikipedia. "The Rise of the West offers a new interpretation of world history. In this book, William McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that a number of separate civilizations pursued essentially independent careers. He argues instead that cultures of mankind had important interrelations at every stage of their history."