Popular historian takes viewers on enlightening trip through Western civilization.
Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? These age-old philosophical questions are as relevant to people collectively as they are individually. Knowing our roots gives us deeper insight into why we think and behave the way we do.
So it is with Western civilization. Those of us who are living in it will better understand who we are and how we have changed over the millennia when we peer into the past. Historian Victor Davis Hanson makes that introspective journey back in time easier in his eight-video lecture series for PJ Media, “The Odyssey of Western Civilization.”
The first episode focuses on the origins of Western civilization – namely in Greece around 700 BC. The Greeks laid the foundation for a legacy of constitutional government, free-market economics, private property and individual liberty that are still evident today. “We look around and we don’t find places outside of Greece where the Western menu began,” Hanson said.
An agricultural revolution built around grapes, olives, barley and wheat fueled a host of societal changes in Greece, giving rise to the small man of the soil. The Greeks adopted vertical farming; they developed a system of labor; they harvested surplus crops, opening the door to marketplaces; they embraced the ideas of autonomy and self-sufficiency; and they created a militia to settle private property disputes.
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