The Foundations of Western Civilization (The Great Courses, 370, DVD) by Thomas F. X. Noble - 2002

Chantilly, Virginia: Teaching Company. DVD. 2002. Fine. Forty-eight 30-minute lectures on eight Fine DVDs in four Fine original cases along with a Fine 304-page paperback Course Guidebook. No shrink-wrap, otherwise As New. Pristine inside and out. Not from a library. Suitable for gifting.

Western civilization 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. 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. In this course, you will 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 BC to the beginning of the 17th century and the dawn of the modern world. You'll explore ancient empires, including those of Persia, Alexander the Great, and Rome. You'll watch as western Europe gradually expands, both physically and culturally. And you'll examine the globalizations of Western civilization with the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration and discovery. 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 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.

Contents:
Lecture 1. "Western," "civilization," and "foundations" ;
Lecture 2. History begins at Sumer ;
Lecture 3. Egypt--the gift of the Nile ;
Lecture 4. The Hebrews--small states and big ideas ;
Lecture 5. A succession of empires ;
Lecture 6. Wide-ruling Agamemnon ;
Lecture 7. Dark Age and archaic Greece ;
Lecture 8. The Greek polis--Sparta ;
Lecture 9. The Greek polis--Athens ;
Lecture 10. Civic culture--architecture and drama ;
Lecture 11. The birth of history ;
Lecture 12. From Greek religion to Socratic philosophy ;
Lecture 13. Plato and Aristotle ;
Lecture 14. The failure of the polis and the rise of Alexander ;
Lecture 15. The Hellenistic world ;
Lecture 16. The rise of Rome ;
Lecture 17. The Roman Republic--government and politics ;
Lecture 18. Roman imperialism ; l
Lecture 19. The culture of the Roman Republic ;
Lecture 20. Rome--from Republic to Empire ;
Lecture 21. The Pax Romana ;
Lecture 22. Rome's Golden and Silver Ages ;
Lecture 23. Jesus and the New Testament ;
Lecture 24. The Emergence of a Christian Church ;
Lecture 25. Late Antiquity--crisis and response ;
Lecture 26. Barbarians and emperors ;
Lecture 27. The Emergence of the Catholic Church ;
Lecture 28. Christian culture in Late Antiquity ;
Lecture 29. Muhammad and Islam ;
Lecture 30. The birth of Byzantium ;
Lecture 31. Barbarian Kingdoms in the west ;
Lecture 32. The world of Charlemagne ;
Lecture 33. The Carolingian Renaissance ;
Lecture 34. The expansion of Europe ;
Lecture 35. The chivalrous society ;
Lecture 36. Medieval political traditions, I ;
Lecture 37. Medieval political traditions, II ;
Lecture 38. Scholastic culture ;
Lecture 39. Vernacular culture ;
Lecture 40. The crisis of Renaissance Europe ;
Lecture 41. The Renaissance problem ;
Lecture 42. Renaissance portraits ;
Lecture 43. The Northern Renaissance ;
Lecture 44. The Protestant Reformation--Martin Luther ;
Lecture 45. The Protestant Reformation--John Calvin ;
Lecture 46. Catholic reforms and "confessionalization" ;
Lecture 47. Exploration and empire ;
Lecture 48. What challenges remain?