Designed for students without a strong background in history, Making Europe is organized around a political chronology to help inexperienced students get a sense of the story of western civilization. Themes of religion, social history, biography and personality, and individual and collective identity enable students to grasp the "big picture." The text's attention to Eastern Europe and thorough coverage of religious history extends right up to the present. The authors' collective experience teaching Western Civilization is evident in the text's carefully designed system of pedagogy that promotes understanding of events and figures of the western past. Focus and review questions, chronologies, key terms and definitions, and chapter summaries help students engage with the material step-by-step, chapter-by-chapter.