Sources for the History of Western Civilization is a primary source reader designed specifically to allow undergraduate students to interact with historical documents. Michael Burger provides only the editorial guidance that students truly require, without unnecessary interventions.

The third edition gives special stress to certain genres, including letters and biographical writings, in order to facilitate comparisons across time. Introductions to sources are reticent, encouraging students to make their own assessments and giving instructors the freedom to supplement where desired. Like the companion textbook, The Shaping of Western Civilization, this two-volume sourcebook ranges in space and time from the ancient Near East to twentieth-century Canada and twenty-first-century Central Europe. The third edition features substantive revisions and additional coverage of key topics throughout; Volume Two includes an extensive table of comparative GDPs of various countries, c. 1500–2000, positioning students to make quantitative as well as qualitative arguments.