In 48 lectures, award-winning Professor Robert Bucholz of Loyola University of Chicago teaches not only the history of Western civilization but also the meaning of civilization itself. Offering profound rewards to everyone, this course is:a grand narrative of the past five centuries; a coherent context for the period's events and trends; and an analysis of what these five centuries have bequeathed to us.
For much of the past five centuries, the history of the European continent has been a history of chaos, its civilization thrown into turmoil by ferocious wars or bitter religious conflicts—sometimes in combination—that have made and remade borders, created and eliminated entire nations, and left a legacy that is still influencing our world.
At its peak in the early 20th century, Britain's empire was the largest in the history of the world, greater even than that of ancient Rome. It embraced more than a fourth of the world's population and affected the course of Western civilization in ways almost too numerous to imagine. Even today, with the advantages of historical perspective and hindsight, it is still nearly impossible to overstate the scope and importance of its stunning legacy. This teaching course will give you a refreshing new understanding of what made the British Empire both great in its achievements and vulnerable to its eventual downfall.