Development of European Civilization

The correct title should be : Development of the Western Anglosaxon Catholic Civilization. No mention of Byzantine Empire, a Christian state, 345 AD - 1453 AD, which was also called East Roman Empire and it had colonies as far as Italy, Spain France, and Africa. Forgot to mention that the Catholic Knights (which he spends so much time about) burned and looted Constantinople at least twice.. No mention of the Great Schism between Catholic and Orthodox, 1054 AD. Wrong maps and completely wrong information about the Ottoman Empire, which after a point, had trade agreements with the Italians, and later allied with the Austrians. No mention of Russia !!! Which was heavily involved in the making of Europe plus the wars.. No mention of the history and culture of any Slavic nation or people.. only when they were involved in events related to the West.. Spain was mentioned only when hosted the Holy Roman Emperor and in reference to transatlantic voyages.. same with Portugal.. Even Italy, was mentioned in regards to the Pope and the Catholic church, brushing very fast over its greatest miracle, the Renaissance.. Tons of detail about the Catholic church, and its 'evolution', when most Europe was still pagan.. For all the above reasons, this 'history' is heavily biased and racist.

This is the only course that I have found from Great Courses series that seem to encapsulate all of Europe's; and not just separate regions, history in a single course, which is very valuable in gaining a quick overall picture of Europe's recent history. A main issue is that the course is unnecessarily too long. The 48 lectures could easily be summarized in 24 lectures. The main reason for this unnecessary length is the poor delivery of the lecturer. Literally every sentence that he says is followed up by another sentence with different wordings, hence, a 24 lecture series became 48 lectures.

I actually have a lot to say about this course, but I can’t really think of the best way to organize my thoughts, or at least to keep it reasonably brief. I have kind of mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, he covers a lot. But on the other hand, despite 48 lectures, it seemed somewhat superficial. There seems to be a bit of bias in his frame. For example, the first major chunk of the course seemed very Christocentric to me. There was almost no discussion of the contribution of Jews to European civilization, and the only time he talked about Islam in the first part was how it reflected on European Christianity. He presented it sort of as a challenge, if not an actual threat. The Ottoman period in southeast Europe, or the Muslim era in Spain seemed glossed over. It was as if the only civilization that counted in Europe was Christian civilization. There were other things in that part of the course that I wish he had talked about more, for example, the Holy Roman Empire. How did it develop? How did it acquire and handle the power that it seemed to have? He mentioned it occasionally, but didn’t really discuss it at all. (I was also troubled by the discussion of the so-called “Babylonian captivity“, but you can’t blame that on Professor Bartlett.) He also seemed to disregard the 19th Century Romantic movement, particularly the group he referred to as “the hashish eaters“. He describes them as a counter to enlightenment reason and rationalism, using terms that seemed derogatory, like “irrational“ and “unreasonable“ (which, IMO, it certainly was not), even seeming to express some shock that these people “used drugs!“ This was the middle 19th Century. The use of hashish, cocaine, ether, as what would later be called “mind-expanding”, by intellectuals like Freud, Harvey, Dumas, and others was not so shocking at the time, or so I understand (I could be wrong about that). Indeed, when he described the fascist movements of the post-World War I period as an abuse or corruption of post-enlightenment rationalism, I couldn’t help thinking, “it’s too bad more people didn’t eat hash, it might’ve mellowed those impulses”. But there is a lot in this course, there were a lot of things that I didn’t know before, that I didn’t really understand before, and as you might be able to tell from this review, while I found his framing a bit troubling, it gave me a lot to think about, so that’s affirmative. I think this course could be a constructive substitution or supplement to a freshman year or Advanced Placement “Western Civ” course. If that’s the kind of thing you were looking for, then you’ll probably like this course. Professor Bartlett himself was personable and clear, if just a bit stiff. I but I’m glad I bought it and I’m glad I watched it.

Listening to two lectures a day. Too bad the course starts in early Middle Ages.

I have found this an excellent overview of a period of history that I know extremely well. However, in an attempt to simplify I feel that he has slipped into error with regard to the impact of Christianity on Victorian society. He claims that the church told the poor that they were sinful and they left the church in droves as it was irrelevant to their needs. This overlooks the huge impact that Christians had in education, health, relief of children, relief of poverty etc. Without this impact England would have been then (and now) a very different place. Almost all villages and towns had chapels established by the working classes. Clearly the relation of Christians to the working classes has been misrepresented, albeit unintentionally.

I am a professor emeritus of chemidtry. I know what great teaching is and I found it in this series. The topic is important. IT is well designed for the inteligen reasonably educated viewer and it is superbly presented. I am seeking more courses from this professor.

The way Professor Bartlett delivers 1000 years of historical ideas in one class is remarkable. I have been looking for such a course for a long time. At the end of this class, you’ll be able to understand how Western ideas have evolved over the last millennia. His explanations are clear, fascinating and delivered with a perfect flow. I will just make one observations and one criticism: The observation, as others have noticed, this class focuses on ideas, and therefore Professor Bartlett can go a bit fast on some historical details, using Foundations of Western Civilization I and II on the side will give you a complete understand of Europe’s history from an intellectual and factual point of view. The criticism is that Professor Bartlett skipped all the Antiquity, and even the rediscovery of roman texts during the middle age. It is not a major issue but it leaves the reader thinking there is no link between the Roman era and modern Europe, which I believe is misleading. I would love to hear Professor Bartlett’s opinion! Beside that one remark, this class is phenomenal and I highly recommend it.

I have had this course for many years and have watched it perhaps 4-5 times now. It does an outstanding job at delivering on its purpose: "Investigating the interdependency between ideas and action, ideology and practice, ideas and events" (quote from the Guidebook). Of course, the "whats" are discussed as well, but details of various events are not the emphasis. If you want to understand better what drove European history and why it went the direction it did, from the middle ages to WWII, this course is for you. As such, it complements other more traditional (but also very valuable) courses by Professors like Desan, Childers, Paxton, and Bucholz. The course has provided me with a lot of "aha!" moments, and it has enabled me to more clearly explain things when I get into conversations (or debates) about European history.

I enjoyed and learned a lot from this excellent series. I am missing a discussion about the contribution of the largest non-Christian community, the Jews, to the culture and economy of Europe.

Professor Bartlett draws an in depth picture of European history since the Middle Ages, that ties together all those well known historic events into a spiderweb, criss-crossing time and space and the Europan experience from various angles. Growing up in Europe, I started watching this course with a pretty good knowledge of the topic, but Professor Bartlett’s ability to convey content and connections is eye opening, and is at the same time gripping and engaging to listen to. He packs so much information into each lecture, that it keeps you on your mental toes, and I could easily binge on this course. Fantastic presentation, and rich source of knowledge and context!