I am a big history buff and this course covers so much history both in relation to time and place. What disappointed you about The Foundations of Western Civilization? This broad and panoramic series, ripe with the telling detail on which history can turn, will help you pull an enormous sweep of history together into one coherent - though by no means closed - framework as you watch history develop under the influence of such critical factors as ecology and environment, geography, and climate government and economics technology religion work and leisure philosophy literature art and architecture and virtues, values, and aesthetics. And you'll examine the globalizations of Western civilization with the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration and discovery. You'll watch as western Europe gradually expands, both physically and culturally. You'll explore ancient empires, including those of Persia, Alexander the Great, and Rome.
Your learning will cover vast amounts of territory and thousands of years, beginning in the ancient Near East and moving to Greece and then Rome.
#WESTERN CIVILIZATION 2 NOTES SERIES#
Within this series of 48 lectures, you'll discover the many ways in which Western civilization has addressed those questions, from its first stirrings in the great river valleys of Iraq and Egypt in 3000 B.C to the beginning of the 17th century and the dawn of the modern world. It involves choices about who gets to participate in any given society and the ways in which societies have resolved the tension between individual self-interest and the common good. What is Western civilization? According to Professor Noble, it is "much more than human and political geography," encompassing myriad forms of political and institutional structures - from monarchies to participatory republics - and its own traditions of political discourse.
The conversion of Constantine The course also addresses one of history's greatest questions: Why did the Roman Empire fall? And you'll learn why most modern scholars believe that the empire did not "fall" at all, but, rather, changed into something very different-the less urbanized, more rural, early medieval world. The mad and venal emperors Nero and Caligula. Caesar assassinated before a statue of his archrival Pompey. Hannibal crossing the Alps during Rome's life-or-death war with Carthage. In telling Rome's riveting story, Professor Fagan draws on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, including recent historical and archaeological scholarship, to introduce the fascinating tale of Rome's rise and decline, including the famous events and personalities that have become so familiar. And it stood for almost 700 years.In this series of 48 spirited lectures, you'll see how a small village of shepherds and farmers rose to tower over the civilized world of its day and left a permanent mark on history. In the regional, restless, and shifting history of continental Europe, the Roman Empire stands as a towering monument to scale and stability, unified in politics and law, stretching from the sands of Syria to the moors of Scotland.
At the peak of its power, Rome's span was vast. Even today, the influence of Ancient Rome is indelible, with Europe and the world owing this extraordinary empire a huge cultural debt in almost every important category of human endeavor, including art, architecture, engineering, language, literature, law, and religion.