[3] It was written by Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, and Frank M. Turner.

Contributor Gregory F. Viggiano joined the authorship team during the preparation of the twelfth edition.

[5] Considered conservative and old-fashioned when it was published (though with scholarship "entirely up to date"),[6] reviewers chided it for ignoring the Byzantines and Ottomans as well as giving short shrift to Russia and Poland.

[8] One reviewer included it among Western Civilization textbooks which "could be plausibly described as consistently following something close to a biblical-literalist line" on the history of Ancient Israel.

It is clear, concise functional, and adequately supported with recent historical scholarship.