Fourteen billion years ago, forged in the crucible of the Big Bang, a story began.
It is the story of all of us; the story of every man, woman, and child who ever lived and walked on Earth. It is a story that connects all of us to each other and to the stars of space from whence we all came. By connecting every discipline of academic inquiry, from literature and music, science and mathematics, art, technology, theatre, religion, weaponry, warfare, and civics, history comes alive as we explore fourteen billion years of civilization in the greatest story ever told: mankind – all of us. It is a story of triumph and tragedy, with tales of valor and courage; epic tales of adventure and sacrifice and of ordinary men and women who, under uniquely extraordinary circumstances set in motion from the moment the universe began, accomplished extraordinary things that changed the world. Our story, and who we are as a people, begins by understanding that we, as Americans, are a relatively new chapter in the ongoing story of mankind. The story of western civilization is the story of how peoples and nations moved from the tyranny of absolute monarchy to the liberty of democracy and republicanism. From the moment civilization first appeared in the Nile River Valley and Mesopotamia, through the battles for democracy between Greece and Persia, and the fight for the empire and glory of Rome; every step up the ladder of science, every masterpiece of the Renaissance, and every voyage of discovery, from Columbus to the first heroic step upon the Moon, western civilization has been dedicated to one idea: you are not what you were born; you are what you have it in you to be.
Welcome to American Civics: The Story of All of Us.
