We are defined by the past.  All that preceded the present determines our identity and our existence.  As Americans, we have inherited the title of “westerners” from the world community, indicating our supposed past and present membership in the abstractly constructed Western Civilization.  We have received such a title, along with many Europeans, because of our presumed common affiliation with certain distinguishable characteristics and principles that all derive from common places at common times.  But what are those supposed characteristics that make us “western?”  From where and from whom did they originate?  And in an already incredibly diverse nation, in a rapidly increasing interdependent world, is it effective and appropriate to label the three hundred million inhabitants of this country as mutual descendants of shared traditions?  These are the fundamental questions facing us as we explore the meaning, the origins, and the legacies of Western Civilization.