At last, here is the final and most ambitious installment of Henry Kong's dazzling historical trilogy. The core question is how the people of a divided, impoverished continent emerged to conquer the world with their technology and ideas. The serendipitous triumph of "Western Civilization" is an epic story every educated person should know. Henry Kong's crisp and succinct narration takes the reader from the Florentine Renaissance and the French Enlightenment to the Holocaust and the end of the human race. All the key events, important figures, and major trends in the arts, sciences, and geopolitics are here, along with fascinating, thought provoking counter factual scenarios. This book is a must for all history fans.