AllMovie

The Western Tradition series offers concise lectures on important events and trends in the history of the western world. The lectures are delivered by Eugen Weber, a noted scholar and instructor at UCLA, and supported by graphic material from the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Intended for use in high school or college classrooms, each tape is a broad overview of a particular era in western history, offering information on art, politics, economics, and a glimpse of what everyday life must have been like in the period. This episode begins in 1,000 A.D., and sees three great estates in Europe: nobility, the church, and peasantry. The Magna Carta and the spread of cathedrals across Europe herald the triumph of spiritual authority.