The Foundations of Western Civilization

In this sweeping course, you get the classic grand tour of ancient Western civilization, taught by an award-winning professor of history at Notre Dame.

• By This Professor
• 01: "Western," "Civilization," and "Foundations"
• 02: History Begins at Sumer
• 03: Egypt-The Gift of the Nile
• 04: The Hebrews-Small States and Big Ideas
• 05: A Succession of Empires
• 06: Wide-Ruling Agamemnon
• 07: Dark Age and Archaic Greece
• 08: The Greek Polis-Sparta
• 09: The Greek Polis-Athens
• 10: Civic Culture-Architecture and Drama
• 11: The Birth of History
• 12: From Greek Religion to Socratic Philosophy
• 13: Plato and Aristotle
• 14: The Failure of the Polis and the Rise of Alexander
• 15: The Hellenistic World
• 16: The Rise of Rome
• 17: The Roman Republic-Government and Politics
• 18: Roman Imperialism
• 19: The Culture of the Roman Republic
• 20: Rome-From Republic to Empire
• 21: The Pax Romana
• 22: Rome's Golden and Silver Ages
• 23: Jesus and the New Testament
• 24: The Emergence of a Christian Church
• 25: Late Antiquity-Crisis and Response
• 26: Barbarians and Emperors
• 27: The Emergence of the Catholic Church
• 28: Christian Culture in Late Antiquity
• 29: Muhammad and Islam
• 30: The Birth of Byzantium
• 31: Barbarian Kingdoms in the West
• 32: The World of Charlemagne
• 33: The Carolingian Renaissance
• 34: The Expansion of Europe
• 35: The Chivalrous Society
• 36: Medieval Political Traditions, I
• 37: Medieval Political Traditions, II
• 38: Scholastic Culture
• 39: Vernacular Culture
• 40: The Crisis of Renaissance Europe
• 41: The Renaissance Problem
• 42: Renaissance Portraits
• 43: The Northern Renaissance
• 44: The Protestant Reformation-Martin Luther
• 45: The Protestant Reformation-John Calvin
• 46: Catholic Reforms and "Confessionalization"
• 47: Exploration and Empire
• 48: What Challenges Remain?