All Episodes of The Western Tradition
Browse all episodes of The Western Tradition
Season 1
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The Dawn of History
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/1/1989
The origins of the human race are traced from anthropoid ancestors to the agricultural revolution.
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The Ancient Egyptians
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 1/1/1989
Egyptian irrigation created one of the first great civilizations.
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Mesopotamia
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 1/1/1989
Settlements in the Fertile Crescent gave rise to the great river civilizations of the Middle East.
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From Bronze to Iron
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 1/1/1989
Metals revolutionized tools, as well as societies, in the empires of Assyria, Persia, and Neo-Babylonia.
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The Rise of Greek Civilization
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 1/1/1989
Democracy and philosophy arose from Greek cities at the edge of the civilized world.
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Greek Thought
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 1/1/1989
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle laid the foundation of Western intellectual thought.
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Alexander the Great
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 1/1/1989
Alexander's conquests quadrupled the size of the world known to the Greeks.
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The Hellenistic Age
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 1/1/1989
Hellenistic kingdoms extended Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean.
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The Rise of Rome
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 1/1/1989
Through its army, Rome built an empire that shaped the West.
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The Roman Empire
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 1/1/1989
Rome's civil engineering contributed as much to the empire as did its weapons.
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Early Christianity
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 1/1/1989
Christianity spread despite contempt and persecution from Rome.
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The Rise of the Church
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 1/1/1989
The old heresy became the Roman empire's official religion under the Emperor Constantine.
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The Decline of Rome
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/1/1989
While enemies slashed at Rome's borders, civil war and economic collapse destroyed the empire from within.
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The Fall of Rome
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/1/1989
Despite the success of emperors such as Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, Rome fell victim to barbarian invasions.
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The Byzantine Empire
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/1/1989
From Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire carried on the traditions of Greece and Rome.
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The Fall of Byzantium
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 1/1/1989
Nearly a thousand years after Rome's fall, Constantinople was conquered by the forces of Islam.
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The Dark Ages
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/1/1989
Barbarian kingdoms took possession of the fragments of the Roman Empire.
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The Age of Charlemagne
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 1/1/1989
Charlemagne revived hopes for a new empire in Western Europe.
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The Middle Ages
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 1/1/1989
Amid invasion and civil disorder, a military aristocracy dominated the kingdoms of Europe.
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The Feudal Order
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 1/1/1989
Bishop, knight, and peasant exemplified some of the social divisions of the year 1000 A.D.
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Common Life in the Middle Ages
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 1/1/1989
Famine, disease, and short life expectancies were the conditions that shaped medieval beliefs.
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Cities and Cathedrals of the Middle Ages
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 1/1/1989
The great churches embodied the material and spiritual ambitions of the age.
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The Late Middle Ages
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 1/1/1989
Two hundred years of war and plague debilitated Europe.
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The National Monarchies
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 1/1/1989
A new urban middle class emerged, while dynastic marriages established centralized monarchies.
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Renaissance & the Age of Discovery
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 1/1/1989
Renaissance humanists made man "the measure of all things." Europe was possessed by a new passion for knowledge.
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Renaissance & the New World
Season 1 Episode 26 - Aired 1/1/1989
The discovery of America challenged Europe.
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The Reformation
Season 1 Episode 27 - Aired 1/1/1989
Voiced by Martin Luther, Protestantism shattered the unity of the Catholic Church.
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The Rise of the Middle Class
Season 1 Episode 28 - Aired 1/1/1989
As the cities grew, new middle-class mores had an impact on religious life.
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The Wars of Religion
Season 1 Episode 29 - Aired 1/1/1989
For more than a century, the quarrels of Protestants and Catholics tore Europe apart.
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The Rise of the Trading Cities
Season 1 Episode 30 - Aired 1/1/1989
Amid religious wars, a few cities learned that tolerance increased their prosperity.
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The Age of Absolutism
Season 1 Episode 31 - Aired 1/1/1989
Exhausted by war and civil strife, many Europeans exchanged earlier liberties and anarchies for greater peace.
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Absolutism and the Social Contract
Season 1 Episode 32 - Aired 1/1/1989
Arguments about the legitimate source of political power centered on divine right versus natural law.
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The Enlightened Despots
Season 1 Episode 33 - Aired 1/1/1989
Monarchs considered reforms in order to create more efficient societies, but not at the expense of their own power.
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The Enlightenment
Season 1 Episode 34 - Aired 1/1/1989
Intellectual theories about the nature of man and his potential came to the fore.
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The Enlightenment and Society
Season 1 Episode 35 - Aired 1/1/1989
Scientists and social reformers battled for universal human rights during a peaceful and prosperous period.
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The Modern Philosophers
Season 1 Episode 36 - Aired 1/1/1989
Freedom of thought and expression opened new vistas explored by French, English, and American thinkers.
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The American Revolution
Season 1 Episode 37 - Aired 1/1/1989
The British colonists created a society that tested Enlightenment ideas and resisted restrictions imposed by England.
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The American Republic
Season 1 Episode 38 - Aired 1/1/1989
A new republic, the compromise of radicals and conservatives, was founded on universal freedoms.
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The Death of the Old Regime
Season 1 Episode 39 - Aired 1/1/1989
In France the old order collapsed under revolutionaries' attacks and the monarchy's own weakness.
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The French Revolution
Season 1 Episode 40 - Aired 1/1/1989
Liberty, equality, and fraternity skidded into a reign of Terror.
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The Industrial Revolution
Season 1 Episode 41 - Aired 1/1/1989
Technology and mass production reduced famine and ushered in higher standards of living.
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The Industrial World
Season 1 Episode 42 - Aired 1/1/1989
A consumer revolution was fueled by coal, public transportation, and new city services.
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Revolution and Romantics
Season 1 Episode 43 - Aired 1/1/1989
Leaders in the arts, literature, and political theory argued for social justice and national liberation.
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The Age of the Nation-States
Season 1 Episode 44 - Aired 1/1/1989
The great powers cooperated to quell internal revolts, yet competed to acquire colonies.
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A New Public
Season 1 Episode 45 - Aired 1/1/1989
Public education and mass communications created a new political life and leisure time.
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Fin de Siècle
Season 1 Episode 46 - Aired 1/1/1989
Everyday life of the working class was transformed by leisure, prompting the birth of an elite avant-garde movement.
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The First World War and the Rise of Fascism
Season 1 Episode 47 - Aired 1/1/1989
Old empires crumbled during World War I to be replaced by right-wing dictatorships in Italy, Spain, and Germany.
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The Second World War
Season 1 Episode 48 - Aired 1/1/1989
World War II was a war of new tactics and strategies. Civilian populations became targets as the Nazi holocaust exterminated millions of people.
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The Cold War
Season 1 Episode 49 - Aired 1/1/1989
The U.S. and Soviet Union dominated Europe and confronted each other in Korea.
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Europe and the Third World
Season 1 Episode 50 - Aired 1/1/1989
Burdened with the legacy of colonial imperialism, the Third World rushed development to catch up with its Western counterparts.
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The Technological Revolution
Season 1 Episode 51 - Aired 1/1/1989
Keeping up with the ever-increasing pace of change became the standard of the day.
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Toward the Future
Season 1 Episode 52 - Aired 1/1/1989
Modern medicine, atomic energy, computers, and new concepts of time, energy, and matter all have an important effect on life in the 20th century.
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