ABSTRACT
It is quite difficult to decide when Western civ began, though debating the question of origins is rewarding and interesting. We have seen that the initial Western civ tradition, launched by Robinson, assumed that the answer to the question of origins was virtually automatic: there is a single story from the ancient river valley societies onward. What should have been discussed and worried about, here, was simply assumed. As Western civ courses have evolved, taking realities like length of semester into account, different beginning points have been decided upon. Again, however, the tendency has been just to get started, rather than to debate. Here, if briefly, we debate.
