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The Western Tradition Season 1

January. 01,1989

TV-G

| Documentary

The Western Tradition

Covering the ancient world through the age of technology, this illustrated lecture by Eugen Weber presents a tapestry of political and social events woven with many strands — religion, industry, agriculture, demography, government, economics, and art. A visual feast of over 2,700 images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art portrays key events that shaped the development of Western thought, culture, and tradition.

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The Western Tradition

1989 / TV-G

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The Western Tradition Season 1 Full Episode Guide

Episode 52 - Toward the Future

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Modern medicine, atomic energy, computers, and new concepts of time, energy, and matter all have an important effect on life in the 20th century.

Episode 51 - The Technological Revolution

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Keeping up with the ever-increasing pace of change became the standard of the day.

Episode 50 - Europe and the Third World

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Burdened with the legacy of colonial imperialism, the Third World rushed development to catch up with its Western counterparts.

Episode 49 - The Cold War

First Aired: January. 01,1989

The U.S. and Soviet Union dominated Europe and confronted each other in Korea.

Episode 48 - The Second World War

First Aired: January. 01,1989

World War II was a war of new tactics and strategies. Civilian populations became targets as the Nazi holocaust exterminated millions of people.

Episode 47 - The First World War and the Rise of Fascism

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Old empires crumbled during World War I to be replaced by right-wing dictatorships in Italy, Spain, and Germany.

Episode 46 - Fin de Siècle

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Everyday life of the working class was transformed by leisure, prompting the birth of an elite avant-garde movement.

Episode 45 - A New Public

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Public education and mass communications created a new political life and leisure time.

Episode 44 - The Age of the Nation-States

First Aired: January. 01,1989

The great powers cooperated to quell internal revolts, yet competed to acquire colonies.

Episode 43 - Revolution and Romantics

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Leaders in the arts, literature, and political theory argued for social justice and national liberation.

Episode 42 - The Industrial World

First Aired: January. 01,1989

A consumer revolution was fueled by coal, public transportation, and new city services.

Episode 41 - The Industrial Revolution

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Technology and mass production reduced famine and ushered in higher standards of living.

Episode 40 - The French Revolution

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Liberty, equality, and fraternity skidded into a reign of Terror.

Episode 39 - The Death of the Old Regime

First Aired: January. 01,1989

In France the old order collapsed under revolutionaries' attacks and the monarchy's own weakness.

Episode 38 - The American Republic

First Aired: January. 01,1989

A new republic, the compromise of radicals and conservatives, was founded on universal freedoms.

Episode 37 - The American Revolution

First Aired: January. 01,1989

The British colonists created a society that tested Enlightenment ideas and resisted restrictions imposed by England.

Episode 36 - The Modern Philosophers

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Freedom of thought and expression opened new vistas explored by French, English, and American thinkers.

Episode 35 - The Enlightenment and Society

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Scientists and social reformers battled for universal human rights during a peaceful and prosperous period.

Episode 34 - The Enlightenment

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Intellectual theories about the nature of man and his potential came to the fore.

Episode 33 - The Enlightened Despots

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Monarchs considered reforms in order to create more efficient societies, but not at the expense of their own power.

Episode 32 - Absolutism and the Social Contract

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Arguments about the legitimate source of political power centered on divine right versus natural law.

Episode 31 - The Age of Absolutism

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Exhausted by war and civil strife, many Europeans exchanged earlier liberties and anarchies for greater peace.

Episode 30 - The Rise of the Trading Cities

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Amid religious wars, a few cities learned that tolerance increased their prosperity.

Episode 29 - The Wars of Religion

First Aired: January. 01,1989

For more than a century, the quarrels of Protestants and Catholics tore Europe apart.

Episode 28 - The Rise of the Middle Class

First Aired: January. 01,1989

As the cities grew, new middle-class mores had an impact on religious life.

Episode 27 - The Reformation

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Voiced by Martin Luther, Protestantism shattered the unity of the Catholic Church.

Episode 26 - Renaissance & the New World

First Aired: January. 01,1989

The discovery of America challenged Europe.

Episode 25 - Renaissance & the Age of Discovery

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Renaissance humanists made man "the measure of all things." Europe was possessed by a new passion for knowledge.

Episode 24 - The National Monarchies

First Aired: January. 01,1989

A new urban middle class emerged, while dynastic marriages established centralized monarchies.

Episode 23 - The Late Middle Ages

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Two hundred years of war and plague debilitated Europe.

Episode 22 - Cities and Cathedrals of the Middle Ages

First Aired: January. 01,1989

The great churches embodied the material and spiritual ambitions of the age.

Episode 21 - Common Life in the Middle Ages

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Famine, disease, and short life expectancies were the conditions that shaped medieval beliefs.

Episode 20 - The Feudal Order

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Bishop, knight, and peasant exemplified some of the social divisions of the year 1000 A.D.

Episode 19 - The Middle Ages

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Amid invasion and civil disorder, a military aristocracy dominated the kingdoms of Europe.

Episode 18 - The Age of Charlemagne

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Charlemagne revived hopes for a new empire in Western Europe.

Episode 17 - The Dark Ages

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Barbarian kingdoms took possession of the fragments of the Roman Empire.

Episode 16 - The Fall of Byzantium

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Nearly a thousand years after Rome's fall, Constantinople was conquered by the forces of Islam.

Episode 15 - The Byzantine Empire

First Aired: January. 01,1989

From Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire carried on the traditions of Greece and Rome.

Episode 14 - The Fall of Rome

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Despite the success of emperors such as Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, Rome fell victim to barbarian invasions.

Episode 13 - The Decline of Rome

First Aired: January. 01,1989

While enemies slashed at Rome's borders, civil war and economic collapse destroyed the empire from within.

Episode 12 - The Rise of the Church

First Aired: January. 01,1989

The old heresy became the Roman empire's official religion under the Emperor Constantine.

Episode 11 - Early Christianity

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Christianity spread despite contempt and persecution from Rome.

Episode 10 - The Roman Empire

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Rome's civil engineering contributed as much to the empire as did its weapons.

Episode 9 - The Rise of Rome

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Through its army, Rome built an empire that shaped the West.

Episode 8 - The Hellenistic Age

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Hellenistic kingdoms extended Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean.

Episode 7 - Alexander the Great

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Alexander's conquests quadrupled the size of the world known to the Greeks.

Episode 6 - Greek Thought

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle laid the foundation of Western intellectual thought.

Episode 5 - The Rise of Greek Civilization

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Democracy and philosophy arose from Greek cities at the edge of the civilized world.

Episode 4 - From Bronze to Iron

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Metals revolutionized tools, as well as societies, in the empires of Assyria, Persia, and Neo-Babylonia.

Episode 3 - Mesopotamia

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Settlements in the Fertile Crescent gave rise to the great river civilizations of the Middle East.

Episode 2 - The Ancient Egyptians

First Aired: January. 01,1989

Egyptian irrigation created one of the first great civilizations.

Episode 1 - The Dawn of History

First Aired: January. 01,1989

The origins of the human race are traced from anthropoid ancestors to the agricultural revolution.

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