The Western Tradition (on Video)

in History, Online Courses, Video - Arts & Culture | December 4th, 2007 6 Comments

The Western Tradition is a free series of videos that traces the arc of western civilization. Starting in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the survey proceeds to cover the Byzantine Empire and Medieval Europe, then the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution, and finally ends up in 20th century Europe and America. Presented by UCLA professor Eugen Weber, an impressive European historian, the video series includes over 2,700 images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that illustrate some of the West’s great cultural achievements. Each of the 52 videos runs about 30 minutes. So you’re getting an amazing 26 hours of content for free.

You can stream all of the videos from this page, and find a more complete course outline here.

For more free courses from major universities, see our collection of University Courses available as podcasts.

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Comments (6)
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  1. Stephen says . . . | December 4, 2007 / 6:07 pm

    I would love it if there was an audio version, or if it was OK to download these videos!

    But great find, anyway!

  2. mememe says . . . | September 19, 2009 / 7:56 pm

    $450 isn’t exactly ‘free’.bittorrent/piratebay is how to download it

  3. MARC K ROSS says . . . | November 11, 2009 / 7:14 am

    I would like to make some downloads.

  4. Learning must be free! says . . . | November 18, 2009 / 4:28 pm

    Here it’s also for free (although you need to download it from rapidshare);

    http://avaxhome.ws/video/Annenberg1.html

    http://avaxhome.ws/video/eLearning/TheWesternTradition2.html

  5. Kaye says . . . | September 4, 2011 / 12:53 pm

    imagine my delight when I found I could watch this wonderful series on my computer. Imagine my disappointment when I found I was watching on a viewer that measured 2″ X 2″. There is no way to enlarge the viewer, or watch in full screen mode. My search continues. :-(

  6. Meatwad says . . . | December 15, 2011 / 12:31 am

    Kaye, once you do watch the small sized version of the show, you have a local copy that can be saved (if you know where to get it from the temporary folder), then possibly resize it in a better viewing local program?? Most of them can be saved as a FileName.flv file, if your temporary copy has no distinct video file type(extension).

    I have been watching this off and on for years and I never get bored of it. I just wish I could keep the schedule they have for it. I have only seen it on ITV (USA Cable version) along with a few other great instructional programs. I was killing time waiting for a relative in a Salvation Army store one day, browsing the cheap used books and what do I see!?! “The Western Tradition” for a buck. I like my books in hard back, but I made an exception here.

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