Very confusing presentation. Jumps around mixing up personalities, timelines, geography, politics, personal opinions and quirks. Next to impossible to comprehend. I see other reviewers have described this mess in fuller detail. The professor's presentation style also was irritating. He loves "never-ending-sentences". Trying to guess "what was the point" became an impossible game. And stop the constant shouting voice. Lots of very good history offerings available from The Great Courses.
Unfortunately, this is NOT one of them. Since I was a history major in college, concentrating on modern European history, I expected this course to be interesting. But I couldnt finish it. I give this course 4-stars rather than 5-stars because; 1.
The professor is very good but not the 5-star professor of other TGC professors, 2. The course is way too short for the enormity of the material. It is a noble attempt to cover European history over a very complicated decades. However, the big picture comes through very clearly. The major changes in politics, economics, industrialization, and philosophy are clearly shown. This is a course on: 1. The evolution of countries and, the relationship between the peasants and the nobility. The slow march to democracy from kingships.
There are lessons to be learned that are pertinent to today's world. One of the most important lessons is that the masses will not be denied. The government has to serve the people or the government will eventually fall. This course is well worth taking but it is not casual listening.
You have to pay attention and you may want to go to the "web" or books to get articles that fill in the details. The recommended reading list is extensive! I liked the professor and I learned a lot. I am writing a deliberately minimalist review so the naysayers can click that my review was not useful. Professor Weiner provides a lot of facts about the period and does a thorough job weaving together the complexities of this broad period incorporating so many political systems.
I'm glad I took the time to listen to this course. However, he is not as engaging as some other lecturers with his presentations not being too memorable. He clearly lets his own political preferences influence his judgment and retelling of the players in these lectures.
I found him not as disconnected and neutral as I would expect from a modern American historian. I also feel he spends too much time emphasizing Jewish history in the period.
I did find some of his background and anecdotes on the subject new, interesting, and informative. However, I feel he let his personal background and religious beliefs to cause him to spend too much time on this group and in telling stories that didn't have a large impact on his subject matter to the detriment of other, more influential happenings.
This was evident by not spending as much time on other oppressed minority groups scattered across Europe. I found the course to be especially interesting and relevant to my line of work. I have already started reading some of the recommended readings and have already found them to be equally interesting.
Sing song not song song. This is an older course. The professor has a continuous inflection deflection tone as he lectures. The information is good. The presentation just average.
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Thank you for your question! All of our courses are designed to be taken at your own pace. We do not grant credits or certificates, but rather encourage learning for the sake of learning and using our courses to supplement current curriculum. This course has 36 lectures, or about 18 hours worth of learning material on this topic.
This particular course does not include closed captioning, but our courses produced after June do. This course will come with a course guidebook, which will contain the major points of the lectures, a glossary of terms, and a bibliography.
Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor. Weiner, Ph. Professor, Lafayette College. Course No. Choose a Format Instant Video. Instant Audio. Add to Cart Choose a format in order to add this course to your cart. Add to Wishlist Please choose a format in order to add this course to your Wish List.
Robert I. Understanding the past on some meaningful level can give additional meaning to our lives—a sense of balance and perspective that facilitates civilized behavior, the ability to empathize and not to take ourselves too seriously.
History at its most interesting is complex, a fascinating whirl of events, personalities, and forces, and few periods of history offer us such captivating complexity as Europe's 19th "century"—the often-broadly defined period from the French Revolution to World War I that formed the foundation of the modern world. This lecture discusses the reasons for extending the "century" to include the points in time when the masses and modern nationalism first presented themselves in Europe's most powerful country to the collapse of the 19th-century Eurocentric world order.
What was Europe like on the eve of the French Revolution? We discuss how the structures of a changing medieval society were further challenged by economic, social, and cultural forces, even before the more profound agrarian and industrial revolutions to come.
This lecture focuses on the landmark analyses of midth century Marxist historian Eric J. Hobsbawm to explain how the French and Industrial Revolutions served as midwives to modern European history and, via the umbilical cord of European imperialism, modern world history.
Although scholars debate the causes of the French Revolution, all agree that it helped determine the political vocabulary, expectations, and myths of 19th-century Europe as it persisted for at least 10 years in Europe's most powerful state, spreading far and wide "in the knapsacks of French soldiers. An adventurer of enormous talents and capacity for work and intrigue, Napoleon Bonaparte dominates Europe's historical imagination like no one until Adolf Hitler, representing much that was best in his era, even though his legacy is marred by his monumental ego and penchant for conquest.
The Industrial Revolution becomes the main force propelling Europe's modernization and urbanization, gradually transforming much of Britain's urban landscape over several generations until by it is the workshop of the world, with a greater productivity than the rest of Europe combined. We examine an era characterized by tensions between the forces of order and the forces of change. Though the former—represented by Austrian Prince Clemens von Metternich—generally dominates, more liberal, constitutional worlds emerge in Britain and in France, though by far different means.
Sparked by an "unintended" revolution in Paris, outbreaks involving middle class elements, workers, and artisans erupt in urban areas in the Germanic states, the Austrian Empire, and the Italian states, leading to a temporary collapse of established authority and hasty concessions.
Dashed expectations combine with expanding urban industrial civilization to usher in a new age of realpolitik and a new balance of power. Though an era of remarkable scientific, economic, and urban advancement, it is also marked by nationalist and class-based antagonism, Social Darwinism, and "modern" racist thought. This lecture examines what is sometimes considered the most senseless of Europe's 19th-century wars—a conflict that makes possible the structural changes Europe will experience from the late s through the Franco-Prussian War of — More than the American Revolution, the French Revolution left a legacy of debris-disputed claims of legitimacy, disputed rights, and grievances.
This lecture examines the tumultuous era between the defeat of Napoleon and the rise of his fascinating and enigmatic nephew, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon III faced the daunting task of establishing legitimacy and creating a liberal, constitutional monarchy in a bitterly divided France and a Europe threatened by his name. The final structure of the Italian nation, achieved when Italy occupied Rome in , was far from what the major players had anticipated.
This lecture paves the way for understanding the disappointing results of "unification" by analyzing the plight of Italy in But Cavour's death leaves the final process of creating the new nation to lesser talents, with problematic results.
This lecture examines the situation before the forging of the German Empire by the powerful Prussian statesman, Otto Von Bismarck—a situation even more complex than that faced by Italy. This lecture examines how Great Britain's political, economic, and social structure allowed it to follow a unique path to political and economic modernization, weathering many of the storms afflicting other great powers—though not always without internal issues. Russia begins the "long 19th century" with little stimuli for modernization.
It is oversized and still expanding, overwhelmingly agrarian with primitive transportation and communication systems, and dominated by a divine right absolutist monarchy that is allied with a privileged aristocracy. This lecture examines Russia's transition. During an age of massive change and material growth, there are crucial shifts in emphasis: nationalism, Social Darwinism, racism, industrialism, European imperialism, a decline in the "liberal" spirit.
We also discuss the rise of modernist philosophies exemplified by such greats as Nietzsche, Freud, Bergson, and Sorel. The Second Industrial Revolution brings about greater change than any prior era. New forms of power, technology, and business organization, along with the possibilities brought by revolutions in transportation, communications, and education, make this transformation synonymous with urban civilization.
Although industrial, urban civilization brings growing democratization and middle-class opportunity, it is also an era of expanding Socialist visions and unionism. The modern urban proletariat is now real, recognized even by Bismarck. This lecture examines the impact of this new reality.
This lecture examines what one historian has called "the longest hatred" a deeply embedded and changing element of Europe's culture, especially at the end of the 19th century, when it developed into new political and racial forms, notably in Central and Western Europe.
Although England's industrial dominance is eclipsed by Germany and the United States on the eve of World War I, and its extended empire has become a source of strain as well as pride, the English response to industrial society is still more successful than that of the other European powers.
Emerging from the Franco-Prussian War and the trauma of a civil war, the Third Republic struggles to consolidate itself and then cope with a progressively harsher series of crises that culminate in the Dreyfus Affair, an event so profound it is sometimes called simply "The Affair. Bismarck's domestic policies attempt every solution besides sharing real power.
When he is fired by the brash new kaiser, the problematic forces Bismarck had been able to monitor—militarism, imperialism, and more extreme and racialist nationalism—begin to spiral out of control. Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire and flawed Italian state did not have much in common, both were examples of "failed" nation-states at the end of the century.
This lecture examines the reasons why, and the conditions in both nations during the formative years of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
This lecture examines the circumstances that ultimately lead Russia to humiliating defeat and the near-overthrow of the regime during the Russo-Japanese War, and how this, in turn, leads nationalists to focus their attention on the Balkans, where the seeds of disaster are planted.
This lecture examines Bismarck's dominance of Europe's diplomatic agenda as he constructs a complex system of defensive alliances that prove a dangerous legacy for later German leaders lacking in his genius, sense of proportion, and respect for the balance of power. European imperialism from the s until about is remarkable for its intensity, tone, scope, and impact. It is spurred on, sometimes haphazardly, by national pride, Social Darwinian and racial assumptions, the search for economic growth and strategic security, Christian conscience, human adventure, and greed.
This lecture examines the eventual unraveling of the Bismarckian system of alliances after his dismissal by Kaiser Wilhelm, culminating in the realization of Bismarck's worst nightmare: Germany surrounded by a number of powerful countries and tightly tied to an unstable Austria-Hungary.
A complex web of events, alliances, and crises move Europe closer to the brink of war. Eventually all of the powers focus on diplomatic and military preparedness, and patience is in short supply. One of the most meticulously studied topics in all of modern history: the causes of World War I.
This lecture examines how a seemingly local conflict could degenerate into the greatest tragedy in modern European history.
This lecture looks at the immediate and long-term impact of the war—the prism through which most of the 20th century passed—with emphasis on the critical battles and military decisions that determined its outcome and best represent its nature and impact. Once the First Battle of the Marne determined that Germany would not win World War I quickly, and combatants realized the war would consume greater quantities of resources than imaginable, the "war behind the war" became as decisive as the one on battlefield, leaving an indelible imprint on the postwar generation.
Within a week, most of the clerical deputies and 47 liberal nobles had joined them, and on June 27 Louis XVI grudgingly absorbed all three orders into the new assembly. On June 12, as the National Assembly known as the National Constituent Assembly during its work on a constitution continued to meet at Versailles, fear and violence consumed the capital.
Though enthusiastic about the recent breakdown of royal power, Parisians grew panicked as rumors of an impending military coup began to circulate. A popular insurgency culminated on July 14 when rioters stormed the Bastille fortress in an attempt to secure gunpowder and weapons; many consider this event, now commemorated in France as a national holiday, as the start of the French Revolution. The wave of revolutionary fervor and widespread hysteria quickly swept the countryside.
Revolting against years of exploitation, peasants looted and burned the homes of tax collectors, landlords and the seigniorial elite. Drafting a formal constitution proved much more of a challenge for the National Constituent Assembly, which had the added burden of functioning as a legislature during harsh economic times.
For instance, who would be responsible for electing delegates? Would the clergy owe allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church or the French government? Perhaps most importantly, how much authority would the king, his public image further weakened after a failed attempt to flee the country in June , retain?
This compromise did not sit well with influential radicals like Maximilien de Robespierre , Camille Desmoulins and Georges Danton, who began drumming up popular support for a more republican form of government and for the trial of Louis XVI. On the domestic front, meanwhile, the political crisis took a radical turn when a group of insurgents led by the extremist Jacobins attacked the royal residence in Paris and arrested the king on August 10, The following month, amid a wave of violence in which Parisian insurrectionists massacred hundreds of accused counterrevolutionaries, the Legislative Assembly was replaced by the National Convention, which proclaimed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the French republic.
On January 21, , it sent King Louis XVI, condemned to death for high treason and crimes against the state, to the guillotine; his wife Marie-Antoinette suffered the same fate nine months later.
In June , the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention from the more moderate Girondins and instituted a series of radical measures, including the establishment of a new calendar and the eradication of Christianity. They also unleashed the bloody Reign of Terror la Terreur , a month period in which suspected enemies of the revolution were guillotined by the thousands. Many of the killings were carried out under orders from Robespierre, who dominated the draconian Committee of Public Safety until his own execution on July 28, Executive power would lie in the hands of a five-member Directory Directoire appointed by parliament.
Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the army, now led by a young and successful general named Napoleon Bonaparte. By the late s, the directors relied almost entirely on the military to maintain their authority and had ceded much of their power to the generals in the field. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Fact: The key meeting to plan the French Revolution took place on a tennis court.
Tired of being The Louisiana city of New Orleans still retains much of its French-infused heritage, and The young couple soon came to symbolize all of the excesses of the reviled French monarchy, and Marie Antoinette herself became the target of a great deal When American colonists won independence from Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, the French, who participated in the war themselves, were both close allies and key participants.
Several years after the revolt in America, French reformers faced political, social and
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