Foundations of Western Civilization II: A History of the Modern Western World - The Great Courses

Written by The Great Courses
Read by Professor Robert Bucholz
Format: MP3
Unabridged

Beginning with the Renaissance, the culture of the West exploded. Over the next 600 years, rapid innovations in philosophy, technology, economics, military affairs, and politics allowed what had once been a cultural backwater left by the collapse of the Roman Empire to dominate the world.
This comprehensive series of 48 lectures by an award-winning teacher and captivating lecturer will show you how - and why - this extraordinary transformation took place.
As you listen to the series, you’ll begin to grasp not only the history of Western civilization, but the meaning of civilization itself, as this grand narrative of the past five centuries creates a coherent context for the period’s events and trends, and offers an analysis of what these five centuries have bequeathed to us. Lecture by lecture, you’ll explores the ideas, events, and characters that modeled Western political, social, religious, intellectual, cultural, scientific, technological, and economic history between the 16th and 20th centuries. You’ll learn how Western civilization was shaped by the low as well as the mighty, the practical as well as the artistic. You’ll gain a larger understanding of the political, social, and cultural events that shaped Europe. And you’ll explore the ramifications of these epoch-making events on the rest of the world, including the United States.

NOTE: The accompanying reference material is available as a PDF.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
01 The Importance of the West
02 Geography Is Destiny
03 Culture Is Destiny
04 Renaissance Humanism—1350–1650
05 Renaissance Princes—1450–1600
06 The New World & the Old—1400–1650
07 The Protestant Reformation—1500–22
08 The Wars of Religion—1523–1648
09 Rational & Scientifi c Revolutions—1450–1650
10 French Absolutism—1589–1715
11 English Constitutionalism—1603–49
12 English Constitutionalism—1649–89
13 War, Trade, Empire—1688–1702
14 War, Trade, Empire—1702–14
15 War, Trade, Empire—1714–63
16 Life Under the Ancien Régime—1689–1789
17 Enlightenment & Despotism
18 The American Revolution
19 The French Revolution—1789–92
20 The French Revolution—1792–1803
21 The Napoleonic Empire—1803–15
22 Beginnings of Industrialization—1760–1850
23 Consequences of Industrialization—1760–1850
24 The Liberal Response—1776–1861
25 The Romantic Response—1789–1870
26 The Socialist Response—1813–1905
27 Descent of Man; Rise of Woman—1830–90
28 Nationalism—1815–48
29 Nationalism—1848–71
30 Imperial Rivalry—1870–1914
31 Industrial Rivalry—1870–1914
32 The Alliance System—1872–1914
33 Decadence & Malaise—circa 1900
34 The Great War Begins—1914–16
35 Breaking the Deadlock—1915–17
36 The Russian Revolution—1917–22
37 The End of the War—1917–22
38 Recovery & Depression in the West—1919–36
39 Totalitarian Russia—1918–39
40 Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany—1922–36
41 The Holocaust—1933–45
42 The Failure of Diplomacy—1935–39
43 World War II—1939–42
44 World War II—1942–45
45 American Hegemony, Soviet Challenge—1945–75
46 Rebuilding Europe—1945–85
47 The New Europe—1985–2001
48 The Meaning of Western Civilization