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The Foundations of Western Civilization
- Narrated by: Thomas F. X. Noble
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
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Publisher's summary
Within this series of 48 lectures, you'll discover the many ways in which Western civilization has addressed those questions, from its first stirrings in the great river valleys of Iraq and Egypt in 3000 B.C to the beginning of the 17th century and the dawn of the modern world. Your learning will cover vast amounts of territory and thousands of years, beginning in the ancient Near East and moving to Greece and then Rome. You'll explore ancient empires, including those of Persia, Alexander the Great, and Rome.
You'll watch as western Europe gradually expands, both physically and culturally. And you'll examine the globalizations of Western civilization with the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration and discovery.
This broad and panoramic series, ripe with the telling detail on which history can turn, will help you pull an enormous sweep of history together into one coherent - though by no means closed - framework as you watch history develop under the influence of such critical factors as ecology and environment, geography, and climate; government and economics; technology; religion; work and leisure; philosophy; literature; art and architecture; and virtues, values, and aesthetics.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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Mythology: Mega Collection
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- Unabridged
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Do you know how many wives Zeus had? Or how the famous Trojan War was caused by one beautiful lady? Or how Thor got his hammer? Give your imagination a real treat. This Mega Mythology Collection of eight audiobooks is for you....
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An interesting set of introductions.
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The Culture of Knighthood in Medieval Romance
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In The Culture of Knighthood and Medieval Romance, join scholar of medieval literature Larissa Tracy for a fascinating dive into the deeper context of narratives about knights and their world. Her Audible Original takes you through the evolution of knighthood and courtly literature, dispelling prevalent myths about chivalry and romance with an eye to revealing just how textured and complex these ideas actually were.
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Recoding History: The Audacious Women Who Shaped Our Digital World is an immersive look into the lives of some of computer history's most ingenious and audacious women. Pulling from the Computer History Museum’s archives and hosted by Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, listeners will learn and laugh along with these great minds as they recount their stories in their own words.
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Breaking the Glass Ceiling
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Lunar New Year, or the first new moon of the lunar calendar, is celebrated by people around the world and across different cultures. Within Chinese culture, the ushering in of a new year is celebrated through one of 12 distinct zodiac animals, each of which is known for its power to map a person’s behavior, character, and fate. In The Chinese Zodiac in Cultures and Traditions, you’ll gain insights into how cultures make sense of the passing of time and our relationship to it.
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Not serious
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What listeners say about The Foundations of Western Civilization
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Tommy D'Angelo
- 03-05-17
Not Engaging or Very Interesting
What disappointed you about The Foundations of Western Civilization?
I really wanted to like this course. I am a big history buff and this course covers so much history both in relation to time and place. But I just could not get into it. The professor’s general style was just not a hit with me and the following became increasingly annoying: his voice would fluctuate from high to low, his humor just wasn’t effective, he would talk fast, and I didn’t get the sense he was teaching as much as he was having a discussion.
It felt like the professor did not spend enough time “pulling it all together”. He only lightly touched on why certain civilizations like the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Persians, etc. are considered “western civilization”. A lot of times I was left wondering why certain peoples or topics were included in such a course or what defines the “western tradition”. While a huge expanse of history was covered there was almost no time spent on what the foundations were or how one would define "western civilization".
Lectures 25-26 finally felt like he was hitting his stride and connecting with me so I went back and re-listened to the previous 24 lectures thinking maybe I should give him another chance with an open mind. Alas I had the same reaction to his lectures and just didn't find much that was interesting in them. Here are the lectures I did find enjoyable:
18 (Roman expansion)
25-26 (Roman crisis and the Barbarian "problem")
30 (Byzantium)
31 (Barbarian kingdoms of Europe)
36-37 (political formations of European countries in medieval times)
However, your experience may be better. For those of you willing to give it a shot here are the basics: time period covered is generally between 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1600. Here are some of the general topics covered:
• Civilization begins at Sumer
• Ancient Egypt
• Ancient Hebrews
• Assyrians
• Neo-Babylonians & the Medes
• Persia
• Ancient Geeks
• Macedonia’s Hellenistic conquests
• Roman Republic and Empire
• Christianity and the church
• Islam
• Byzantine Empire
• Barbarian (Germanic, Celtic, Slavic) kingdoms of Europe
• The Franks under Carolingian rule
• England and France
• Germany and other European countries in the medieval period
• The Renaissance
• The Reformation
I am going to listen to Professor Harl's "Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor" course hoping it engages me and succeeds where this course fails. I really wish The Great Courses would do a course on medieval Europe focusing on the formation of current states like France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Poland, etc. I know there are some courses on 1600 Europe onward but I'd be interested in a course on political history of the major countries prior to that time period.
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115 people found this helpful
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- Mike Keith
- 08-08-16
Highly recommended
Where does The Foundations of Western Civilization rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
top 10
I loved the material but a history major may already know all this stuff.
I will proceed directly to Vol 2.
Who was your favorite character and why?
n/a
What about Professor Thomas F. X. Noble’s performance did you like?
This is the weakness. The Prof is a good lecturer but his dynamic range is large so the audio volume varies greatly making it at times a difficult listen in the car. I frequently needed to replay sections that had fallen to a near whisper.
A *dynamic range compressor* add-on to the audible app would be a great idea! This same problem appears in many other recordings.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
n/a
Any additional comments?
I thoroughly enjoyed this.
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45 people found this helpful
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- kdhsjdqw
- 01-18-16
Extremely annoying speaking style
I'm interested in the subject matter but can barely focus on what's being said because the speaker is so irritating. It's like he's trying to get a class of 8 year olds interested in history by being the cool professor, but all he is really succeeding in doing is dumbing material down and delivering information very poorly. I'm really struggling to make myself listen to this one.
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36 people found this helpful
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- Josh Hopper
- 12-13-17
great
All of the Great Courses are fantastic. a problem occurs when the narrator constantly slides in the slanted left-wing viewpoint prevalent in academia. This is not the issue here however. Magnificently unbiased. Absolutely engrossing.
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31 people found this helpful
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- David
- 10-17-16
Strong Recomendation With Caution
I give this lecture series five stars even though it has notable deficiencies. It is worth five stars because the author drives straight through a vast corpus of important matterial with single mindedness and with few deviations.
1) As noted in a number of reviews above the speaker is, shall we say, no Grover Gardener. He has a generally discordant manner of exposition not everyone can tolerate. I urge listeners to get used to it because the matterial is worth it.
2) He is either ignorant of the facts or intimidated by the powers that be [unlike Galileo] in stating there is no biological basis in defining race. Not only can DNA identify races it can tell from where an individual Icelander was born in any of nearly a dozen geographical areas in that small island. We have an entire industry that can tell you what percent of your genome was inherited from a Neanderthal. But this is a trivial observation.
3) I am entirely baffled he includes Islam as an inheritor of the Roman legacy. This seems entirely predicated on early Caliphate schollars who showed interest in ancient Helenistic literature and that because of this some of that litterature was passed along with commentary into later ages.It is not clear to me what percentage was actually passed along that otherwise would have been lost. I have tried to find out with but little success. The problem seems to be that these scholars obtained the texts from contemporary Byzantines who never lost them in the first place and lasted another five hundred years.
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29 people found this helpful
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- Ruby Dickson
- 02-20-18
Very annoying, somewhat informative
An interesting survey of thousands of years of history. Tracks some themes from ancient Mesopotamia through the early modern period. I would say that this series is good for giving an overview of the periods discussed, but in the course of the survey there are many serious over generalizations that will grate on anyone who already has an interest in history.
The professor has an extremely annoying and condescending way of speaking - - he will explain something very obvious, and make the reader feel like they're in a remedial class. Then in the same lecture, he will pretend like certain obscure facts are as obvious as could be, and frequently says things like "as you all know well, Clovis was not actually a carolingian leader," making the listener feel like a idiot who should know these things.
Overall, a good course with some serious flaws. Even as a huge history nerd, I learned some new things. But beware, the lecturer is certainly not for everyone.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Tyler
- 03-04-14
Excellent course!
This is my second, all time favorite history course thus far. I have only been a patron of the Great Courses for about 7 or 8 months when my favorite podcaster mentioned they were now on Audible. I highly recommend this particular course. The professor is very good at what he does, captivating, interesting, and knowledgeable.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Zach (USA)
- 02-21-17
Dan Carlin-esque
If you could sum up The Foundations of Western Civilization in three words, what would they be?
This is a good summary course of a western development from early civilization up through late antiquity.
Any additional comments?
I'm not sure who influenced whom, or if it's simply a coincidental speaking style, but Professor Noble comes off like Dan Carlin in his start-stop, sometimes manically-rapid delivery and tone. It's not for everyone because it doesn't sound much like a lecture recorded in a lecture hall, nor is it going to delve deep enough into any one subject to enlighten true scholars, but fans of Carlin's "Hardcore History" will feel right at home with this course. I found it plenty entertaining and worth listening to.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Antti Vermas
- 03-04-17
Highly biased and irrelevant
The author chooses to ignore the significance of the Enlightenment by almost completely excluding it. Instead he focuses on all the negative aspects of western heritage and uses hours to talk about the nuances of some ancient poets. Huge disappointment.
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- Jason
- 03-29-16
CLIP studying
I purchased this to review for the clep exam on western civilization. Very good information and overview of the fundamental concepts that shaped western history. I highly recommend it to learn something new. Professor Noble does a fantastic job organizing and keeping listeners engaged.
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