Welcome to Western Civilization 2. This class will discuss the history of Western Civilization (primarily Europe and North America) from the year 1500 CE to the present. You will learn about major events, countries, ideas, and people and the impact that these had on their times and on how history developed. This knowledge is important for you to have because you are a person who lives in a diverse society shaped by these events and ideas. The ultimate goal of this class is to help you understand how the flow of history has impacted the present and to help you understand the world you find yourself in now.

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Identify major countries, empires, and civilizations of Western Civilization from the Reformation to the present.

• Define key terms and facts about major countries, empires, and civilizations of Western Civilization from the Reformation to the present.

• Review the cause and effect of political, economic, cultural, philosophical, religious, and social developments in Western Civilization from the Reformation to the present.

• Apply critical thinking skills to knowledge learned in this course by participating in class activities.

About This Book

This textbook was created through Connecting the Pipeline: Libraries, OER, and Dual Enrollment from Secondary to Postsecondary, a $1.3 million project funded by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network and the Institute of Library and Museum Services. This project supports the extension of access to high-quality post-secondary opportunities to high school students across Louisiana and beyond by creating materials that can be adopted for dual enrollment environments. Dual enrollment is the opportunity for a student to be enrolled in high school and college at the same time.

The cohort-developed OER course materials are released under a license that permits their free use, reuse, modification and sharing with others. This includes a corresponding course available in Moodle and Canvas that can be imported to other platforms. For access/questions, contact Affordable Learning Louisiana.

If you are adopting this textbook, we would be glad to know of your use via this brief survey.

Cover Image

The cover image is “Patsaouras Transit Plaza (at L.A. Union Station)” by Thank You (24 Millions) views and licensed under a Creative Common Attribution 2.0 Generic license (CC BY 2.0 DEED).