This product is licensed for single family use only.
Request a group or school license.
Modernity | World History Curriculum
- Age: 13+
- 1 Full Credit
Year 2 in Dave Raymond’s History Series
Master storyteller Dave Raymond begins in the late 17th century, follows the amazing history of people and nations up through the 18th and 19th centuries, then finishes with the incredible events of the 20th century. This is a magisterial look at world history from a Christian worldview.
Description
In this second year of his history series, Dave Raymond turns his attention to the maturity of Western civilization. Dave gives students:
- A Christian worldview applied to the major developments in philosophy, science, art, theology, and government
- An exploration of the Enlightenment, Darwinism, the World Wars, and much more
- An introduction to fascinating personalities such as Newton, Bach, Napoleon, and Jane Austen, among many others
- A moral philosophy to help measure the events of history against a Biblical standard
Dave’s modern history homeschool curriculum is loved by thousands of High School students. Give your kids a view of history that will prepare them to understand the world.
Complete Series: American History | Modernity | Antiquity | Christendom
Listen to Dave explain how his series works:
Add on Facilitation or Grading with our Compass Membership Facilitators answers student questions, provide Zoom discussion of lesson content, give assistance with projects & portfolios, and, if grading level is chosen, maintain student grades.
Includes:
- 27 lessons (5 videos per lesson, 47 hours total)
- 4 projects
- 308-page Student Reader with primary & secondary sources (PDF, EPUB and MOBI)
- Teacher’s Guide with Scope & Sequence (PDF, EPUB and MOBI)
- Dedicated EPUB & Kindle versions of the Student Reader and Teacher’s Guide using Dyslexia-friendly fonts. View a side-by-side sample.
- Year-long Portfolio
- Weekly Exams
- Dates covered: 1600s to 2000
Ages: 13+ (We recommend children be over age 13 to take this class due to mature content in dealing with war and some modern art. Please be aware of some brief artistic nudity in some of the historical artwork that is presented in the course.)
Credit: One High School History/Social Studies
Click on the FAQ tab for a complete breakdown of hours spent per area to qualify for high school credit.
Dave Raymond lives in rural Middle Tennessee with his wife and 6 children where he has taught the humanities for the past 20 years. He teaches the disciplines of history, literature, composition, and Latin through Quiller Tutorials.
License: This product is licensed for use by one family. For group, co-op, or school use, each family will need to purchase a copy or purchase licenses for each student. For more information, visit our group license page.
Additional information
| Age | 13+ |
|---|---|
| Age/Grade | |
| Credit | 1 HS |
| Credit Amount | |
| Lessons | 27 |
| Lesson Length | 75-95 minutes (5 videos, ~20 min each) |
| Teacher | Dave Raymond |
| Format | DVD, Download, Streaming, USB Thumb Drive |
| Runtime | 47 Hours, 41 Mins |
| Addl Mtls | Student Reader & Teacher's Guide (PDF or Physical Books) |
| Type |
Lessons
- Orientation (1:19:01)
- The Great Stage: Introduction to the West (1:44:30)
- Ideas Have Consequences: The Enlightenment (1:25:48)
- The Sacred and the Secular: Empires, Missions, Pirates, and Rulers (1:37:55)
- Royal Science: The Scientific Revolution (1:40:23)
- The Creators: Pascal, Vermeer, Johnson, Bach (1:35:24)
- The Devil Has No Stories: The French Revolution (1:46:07)
- I Am the Revolution: Napoleon (1:53:27)
- Deus Ex Machina: The Industrial Revolution (1:14:24)
- The Antiquary and the Muses: Scott, Austen, and the Romantic Poets (1:40:08)
- No Vision Too Large: Wilberforce and Chalmers (1:29:52)
- Culture=State: Nationalism (1:29:28)
- Eminent Culture: Victorianism (1:39:06)
- The West and the Rest: Victorian Missions (1:53:00)
- The New Priesthood: Scientism and Darwinism (1:55:44)
- The Square Inch War: Kuyper and Wilson (2:02:18)
- The Pity of War: World War I (1:52:41)
- Domesticity Versus Tyranny: Versailles, Dictators, and America’s Roaring Twenties (1:39:38)
- Modern Art and the Death of Culture: Art and Architecture (2:14:04)
- I’ll Take My Stand: The Thirties (2:11:55)
- The Lost Generation: Literary Converts (2:10:57)
- The Wrath of Man: World War II (1:55:46)
- The Cross and Perseverance: World War II, Bonhoeffer, and Churchill (1:57:53)
- Personal Peace and Affluence: The Fifties (2:02:57)
- The Great Divorce: The Sixties (1:43:11)
- The West Like the Rest: The Seventies and the End of Modernity (1:59:06)
- The Triumph of the West: The Fall of Communism and Postmodernity (1:26:37)
Sample Lessons
Resources
How to Teach Modernity: Don’t know where to begin with this product (or need a refresher)? Try our brief jumpstart guide to see how all the pieces fit together.
Modernity Resources: Additional links, videos, and games you can use to supplement the curriculum. Best of all, they’re free!
History posts on our Blog: Stay up to date on the whys and hows of this product.
FAQs
Does the streaming service expire?
No. This is a purchase in perpetuity.
Are there any course corrections?
View an updated list of corrections for Modernity.
How do I calculate for high school credit?
HSLDA recommends spending approximately 150 hours on a subject to qualify for high school credit. This is how Dave Raymond’s classes generally break down to achieve that credit. Some students will spend more time in some areas and some will spend less, but there is clearly enough different types of work to qualify for full high school credit:
*The reader includes over 300 pages of original historical materials. It increases in length as the year progresses. For example, lessons in the first semester comprise approximately 140 pages while those in the second comprise approximately 190 pages. If additional reading is desired for older students, we include recommendations for that.
**If a parent desires to do two or more thesis papers for older students, that is perfectly acceptable and will only increase the amount of time spent in the class.
What should my student’s portfolio look like?
Here is an example of the portfolio to give some ideas.
11 reviews for Modernity | World History Curriculum
You must be logged in to post a review.
Compass Membership
Access to 30+ Streaming Courses
Over 1,500 Videos
Dozens of PDF Books & Guides
Christine W –
Again, Dave’s insight to events is amazing. I as the teacher learn something that I didn’t know every time I get to watch a video.
Carla S –
I just asked my daughter taking Modernity to review Modernity. Her reaction, “I love it! It doesn’t describe History as just dates and events. It give context as to why events took place, and the people behind them. Before this, I thought History was boring. I look forward to working on Modernity. It’s my favorite class.”
Kate W –
Our favorite! My son loves the history, learning from original documents and seeing the role worldview has played in the events of the work, learning that ideas have consequences. We also love the inclusion of art and literature as they reflect and affect the times in which they were created. We will be sad to see this end. Maybe Mr. Raymond could do an update module?
Denice H (verified owner) –
Excellent class! Better than any other modern history class I’ve ever seen. It discusses the “why” these dates and events are important and the far reaching effects they have had on the modern world
Lauri L –
Finishing up Part two and headed into certain parts of Modernity this year, this series has been an INVALUABLE resource to our years long study of US History in the context of World History with associated Worldviews and Cultural Geography. Reconstruction to Now is the plan…we are almost done with laying a solid foundation. Thank you!!!
Rosalind –
Your orchestral accompaniment perfectly suits the topic of Modernity: dissonant Prokofiev. Well chosen! Looking forward to this series.
Dana –
My 14 year old son and I are doing Modernity together. He commented, “If Biology was taught this way, it would be much more interesting.” He is not a fan of Apologia. His older brother who is dual enrolled enjoys watching too! Thanks for bringing us a great resource!
OneMom (verified owner) –
This is an excerpt of a review at http://onemom.com/
to the nuts and bolts of the course. There are 27 units, with each having about 5 lectures each. Individual lectures last usually 15-25 minutes. If you use the course according to the guidance, lectures are watched daily, with additional readings (400 page reader), there are weekly exams, weekly portfolios, an imitation project, a thesis paper, and another project. All totaled, this equals 211 hours and a 1-credit high school course. With my daughter’s challenges, and my propensity to have curriculum serve as a tool and not rigid box that we must conform to, this is what we are doing:
Together, we watch three lectures per week. Partly so I can assist my daughter with understanding of these complex ideas and events, and partly because I really would like to learn history for the first time (yes, I graduated from high school and have both an undergraduate and graduate degree, all from public education institutions).
Dave can get a LOT of information into 20 minutes, so for now, I take notes during the lecture (even at that, I have to pause him several times just to keep up). My daughter copies my notes into her own notebook – and adds into the sidebar any thoughts or questions she might have about that lecture and what’s in my notebook. She is learning from the lectures, and she is learning the art of note taking by observing me and then writing them out herself.
We have the 400 page reader, and use it as a reference..
We are doing one project – a scrapbook on each unit. For my artistic and creative daughter, this is more meaningful than struggling with a thesis.. An example of a scrapbook page comes from the unit “The Creators: Pascal, Vermeer, Johnson, and Bach”. The lecture on Jan Vermeer (Dutch artist) was quite inspiring to my daughter and she wondered how she could do scrapbook pages on his work when only 30-some of his paintings still exist. I was fortunate to find a book of postcards on – reprints of these surviving Vermeer works. She will be able to include these cards on her pages and incorporate colorful borders (using a lot of blue, which if you know anything about Vermeer, is quite appropriate), and write short descriptions of each of the works.
Dave Raymond loves to unpack history, and we love to be on that journey with him as our guide.
Even though I have a daughter with challenges, and one who does not learn as other kids (or even as I learn); and though I am not using the Modernity curriculum as “prescribed”, it is proving to be an excellent fit for our homeschool and I dare say that she will know more about world history than many of her public school counterparts, or even many college graduates.
Kristen –
This review is an excerpt from the blog, Sunrise to Sunset. Full review here: http://sunrisetosunsethomeschool.com/2016/08/03/modernity/
4 things to love about Modernity
1. Easy to teach – The course is well-laid out and teacher friendly. It’s divided into daily lessons so it’s very open and go with little to no planning required.
2. Interesting presentation – Dave Raymond is excited about history and it shows in his presentation. He’s interesting to listen to. While much of the video is lecture, there is a nice blend of related images mixed with the video of the speaker.
3. Christian Worldview – There is plenty of opportunity to study history from the politically correct, secular worldview. This class not only teaches history from a Christian perspective, but also provides the Christian perspective of why history is important to study.
4. Variety – While the format is predictable with 5 daily videos and corresponding readings, the projects and portfolio pages add the opportunity for students to be creative and truly own the content.
Luke Gilkerson –
This is an excerpt from the blog Intoxicated on Life. Full review available here: http://www.intoxicatedonlife.com/2016/08/03/7-reasons-love-dave-raymonds-modernity/
7 Things I Love About Modernity
Watching these videos makes me very excited for my boys to take this course. Here are 7 reasons why…
1. Modernity offers a ruthlessly Christian approach to history.
This course is not merely a regurgitation of facts, events, dates, and people. It seeks to interpret the history through a Christian lens.
In every lesson, Dave is helping to shape a student’s worldview with Scripture. He does this by (1) showing the providence of God in history, (2) explaining many of the biblical foundations that shaped western civilization, and (3) critiquing unbiblical attitudes that arise in historical movements.
Dave’s approach to learning history is deeply rooted in his rich biblical understanding of humanity, our divine purpose and calling as people, and the purpose of pursuing wisdom. His method of teaching also communicates incredible hope—even when studying a time period that is often very dark—because he believes in a God who transcends and works through history.
2. Dave Raymond knows his stuff.
Dave is an excellent teacher and clearly has a grasp of the important elements that need to be covered in a course of this kind. For 12 years he has taught humanities courses such as history, literature, composition, Latin, civics, and economics for both homeschoolers and in private schools, and his expertise shows in these video lessons.
3. Dave Raymond is an excellent storyteller.
“History must be taught as stories.” – Ben House, Veritas Academy
There’s nothing “flashy” about these videos. While the production quality is very high (like everything Compass Classroom creates), most of the time it is Dave on the screen lecturing, interspersed with a few primary source images like historical paintings or photos. It isn’t produced like a riveting docudrama.
Still, Dave has a knack for bringing the past to life. He demonstrates how simple storytelling can not only educate but can hold our attention and make us fall in love with the study of history.
4. Modernity gives students an appreciation for, and a valuable critique of, the West.
When we think of “the West” we might be thinking in geographical terms: the United States and Europe. And while that is often what is meant by the term, Modernity speaks of the West in much broader terms—not just a place but a mentality.
In what we call “the West,” the Bible was a centrally important book. The Bible brought its view of God, the universe, and mankind into all the leading languages of western civilization, which means the Bible actually shaped the mental categories in which Western people think. Students who take this course will be immediately impressed with a sense of gratitude for how the Bible has shaped the western world.
At the same time, Dave doesn’t paint a rosy picture of the West, as if “westernness” can do no wrong. He doesn’t shy away from the fact that the modern era is a dark time, filled with revolution and violence that is unparalleled in human history.

5. Modernity teaches through primary source readings.
Dave doesn’t simply ask students to engage with his lectures. He wants them to experience the minds of the past for themselves. The course offers a 400-page reader filled with primary source readings that are paired with each lecture.
6. Modernity’s projects are fun and engaging.
Throughout the course of the year, students are expected to complete four projects, allowing students to dive deeply into the historical material.
7. Modernity is easy for parents and students to use in the home.
Just sit back and let Dave be the expert! When you purchase the course, you get a thorough Teacher Guide, complete with an explanation of all projects, a grading guide, and exam answer keys.
It is very easy for a student to pace him or herself through the course: just watch the video, complete the readings, take the quiz, keep up on your portfolio and projects.
Rosalind (verified owner) –
Your orchestral accompaniment perfectly suits the topic of Modernity: dissonant Prokofiev. Well chosen! Looking forward to this series.