The Western Heritage is an American history textbook used for the study of Western civilization

Western culture

Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...

 and European history

History of Europe

History of Europe describes the history of humans inhabiting the European continent since it was first populated in prehistoric times to present, with the first human settlement between 45,000 and 25,000 BC.-Overview:...

. It was first published in 1979, and has gone through ten editions. It was written by Donald Kagan

Donald Kagan

Donald Kagan is an American historian at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece, notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War. 1987-1988 Acting Director of Athletics, Yale University. He was Dean of Yale College from 1989–1992. He formerly taught in the Department of...

, Steven Ozment

Steven Ozment

Steven E. Ozment is an American historian of early modern and modern Germany, the European family, and the Protestant Reformation....

, and Frank M. Turner. It soon became a "standard survey text" and is currently published in two volumes.

Considered conservative and old-fashioned when it was published, reviewers chided it for ignoring the Byzantines and Ottomans as well as giving short shrift to Russia and Poland. Others indicated lack of attention to the role of the Islamic states and ignorance of Islamic sources. It was one of the few remaining standard texts that followed the biblical-literalist line.