Great Courses series; 48 lectures

{pasted from the Great Courses site}
Understanding how Europe evolved is essential for anyone seeking an in-depth grasp of both the history of Western civilization—and its future—for a variety of reasons:


•Almost all of the West's important political, social, cultural, and economic institutions and ideologies either came from Europe or evolved in reaction to it.
•To witness how European civilization developed is to understand why and how the entire Western world became who and what it is.
•Finally, such an understanding is essential if you are to have a nuanced grasp of the important events that dominate the daily news.

In short, and in almost every way that matters, historical Europe was the laboratory in which the world you now live in was conceived and tested. And you'll be living with the consequences of those experiments for the rest of your life.