Check your local library’s digital app (Kanopy/Hoopla) for free streaming access to Development of European Civilization , or visit TheGreatCourses.com for their current sale pricing.
The is available in several formats:
For many, the history of Europe is viewed through the fractured lens of high school textbooks—a blur of dates, disparate wars, and isolated names of kings and queens. We learn of the French Revolution here, the Industrial Revolution there, and the Roman Empire somewhere in the distant past. Rarely are these moments stitched together into a cohesive tapestry that explains not just what happened, but why Western society looks the way it does today. TTC Video Development of European Civilization
No course on European civilization can avoid the grim climax of the 20th century. The final third of the lectures confronts the paradox of Europe’s greatest achievements (science, industry, the nation-state) leading to its greatest catastrophes (World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Holocaust). Check your local library’s digital app (Kanopy/Hoopla) for
Because it is a , the course utilizes hundreds of images of art, architecture, and primary documents. Bartlett teaches you to "read" a painting. For example, he uses Pieter Bruegel’s The Triumph of Death to explain the psychological devastation of the plague better than any textbook paragraph could. Rarely are these moments stitched together into a
The course frames Europe as a "laboratory" where the modern world's core ideologies—such as capitalism, nationalism, and rationalism—were first tested. Unlike traditional timelines that focus solely on "Great Men," Bartlett examines the interplay of social, religious, and economic forces. Key Eras Covered