Rise of the West

In this book, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that separate civilizations developed independently.

Instead, he argues that human cultures have interacted at every stage of their history, with major social changes triggered by new or newly important foreign stimuli.

The narrative is divided into three parts: the beginnings of civilization in Mesopotamia to 500 B.C.

, the cultural balance of Eurasia from 500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.

, and the era of Western dominance since 1500 A.D.

McNeill highlights the interplay between cultural, political, and economic factors of each civilization and how they influenced each other.

The book also includes a retrospective essay where McNeill discusses how his work was shaped by the time it was written and suggests revisions based on subsequent developments in historiography.