Scholars, politicians and meme-slingers alike talk about Western Civilization as if it's something concrete. Since it's named after a compass direction, you might even assume it refers to some actual place. But even old-school, traditional Western Civ textbooks show that The West is a much, much messier concept than it first appears.

Find out why the West isn't just about Western Europe. Sometimes it's in the East, or the Middle East, or in Western Asia, or in North Africa.

And sometimes it's only in your head.

Join historian Doug Sofer for the first part of this exciting three-part mini-series that was a whole big fat year in the making! Part I (this one!) is about the ancient origins of what's called the West. It's also somehow about robots, a rabbit's nose, and way too much about kicking footballs around.

Learn more about this rogue, underdog, Hail Mary pass of a project at findyourselfinhistory.com !

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Learn more about this episode and check out the blog at findyourselfinhistory.com.