A couple of years ago, I penned a column on the vanishing history of Western civilization in America’s colleges and universities.

Specifically, I noted that the National Association of Scholars had published a comprehensive report titled “The Vanishing West,” which traced the decline and near extinction of Western Civilization history survey courses in America’s top colleges and universities from 1964 to 2010.

The report stated that beginning in 1964, there was a new emphasis on globalization rather than on the explicit teaching of Western civilization. Of the 50 institutions surveyed, only 20 percent required Western civilization courses, whereas the remaining 80 percent required only that students be familiar with Western history.

By 2010, none of the 50 institutions required Western civilization courses, and only 34 percent even offered token courses on the topic.

It was an alarming trend in 2010, and it is even more ominous today because there seems to be a push to devalue and even eliminate the teaching of Western Civilization in our high schools and colleges.

Here’s why this should concern us.

Western Civilization refers to the cultural, political, and social heritage that has developed in Europe and the Americas, deeply rooted in ancient Greece and Rome, and shaped by various historical events such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution. It encompasses ideas of democracy, individualism, and human rights that have influenced modern governance and societal structures.

Western Civilization has fundamentally shaped the modern world through several key political and social pillars. While many of these ideas were developed in response to internal European conflicts, they eventually became foundational to international norms.

Just take a look at the political and social contributions that have emerged from Western civilization:

Political Contributions: Governance and Law

• Democracy and Representation: Originating in Ancient Greece, the concept of “demos” (the people) holding power evolved from direct participation to the modern representative democracy used by most nations today.
• The Rule of Law: Stemming from Roman “civitas” and later the Magna Carta, this principle ensures that even the highest officials are subject to the law, moving society away from arbitrary rule.
• Separation of Powers: Popularized by Enlightenment thinkers like Montesquieu, this system of checks and balances prevents the centralization of authority, a hallmark of modern constitutional governments.
• The Modern Nation-State: The Peace of Westphalia (1648) established the concept of state sovereignty, which remains the primary unit of international political organization.

Social Contributions: Individualism and Rights

• Human Rights and Natural Law: Concepts of natural rights—the idea that humans possess inherent rights to life and liberty regardless of their government—were codified during the Enlightenment and later formed the basis of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
• Individualism and Secularism: Western thought, particularly after the Reformation, shifted focus toward the authority of individual conscience and the eventual separation of church and state.
• The Scientific Method and Rationalism: The Scientific Revolution institutionalized the use of reason, observation, and empiricism over dogma, transforming education, healthcare, and technology globally.
• Mass Literacy and Information: The invention of the printing press in Germany democratized knowledge, leading to the rise of mass education and the modern “information revolution.”

So, what is the main opposition to requiring or teaching Western Civilization survey courses?  Why is teaching the considerable and important political and social contributions Western civilization has made to the world a bad thing?

Opposition stems from ideological shifts toward “global” and “transnational” history, feminist and diversity activism, and anti-Western narratives portraying the West as inherently illiberal, oppressive, and even evil because of the colonialism it fostered.

Some leftist educators argue that Western civilization classes are inherently racist because they teach that “Western” values and political systems are superior to those of Middle Eastern and Asian nations.

The result: A precipitous decline in Western Civilization history classes—particularly in required survey classes.

Research confirms that Western Civ courses have disappeared for over 50 years, with few high schools or colleges regularly requiring them today. Fewer than 70 of America’s approximately 4,000 institutions of higher education (under 2%) have endorsed principles supporting core curricula such as Western Civ.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) rates colleges on seven core subjects (e.g., U.S. history, literature) and has found that most lack robust Western Civ requirements. Only top performers, such as Colorado Christian University (requiring Western Civ) and the Air Force Academy, earn A’s, placing them in the top 2% nationwide.

Specific examples of anti-Western Civ institutions include Stanford, which explicitly declines such requirements, and Harvard, which abandoned them after the 2000s amid shifts toward “global civilizations.”

Former Harvard history professor James Hankins criticized his department’s abandonment of the Western canon under activist pressure, including feminist administrators who lowered standards to boost female and minority hires. At the same time, Harvard’s History Department shifted its focus to non-Western history, characterizing Western history as “actively anti-Western” and contrasting it unfavorably with progressive ideals.

Hankins, who resigned from Harvard in December after a distinguished 40-year career, charged that Harvard’s curricula emphasized identity politics (race, gender, equity), exclusionary views of the Constitution, and anti-market bias, thereby sidelining positive Western achievements such as American exceptionalism and America’s Marshall Plan for a devastated Europe following World War II.

This “woke war” on Western civilization, Hankins argued, links to academic antisemitism and rejection of Zionist perspectives, fostering echo chambers that exclude Western objectivity.

Other critics label today’s prevailing academia as “anti-American and anti-Western civilization,” amplified by post-2020 activism. They say today’s elite colleges and universities prioritize specialization over shared knowledge of Western heritage. This reflects trends toward elective “student freedom,” resulting in graduates lacking civilizational literacy.

All is not lost, however. There are clear signs that some American colleges and universities are reviving Western Civilization survey courses, particularly since 2023, amid pushback against perceived ideological imbalances in higher education.

There is evidence of a modest revival of Western Civ survey courses at a few universities. For example:

• The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill: In 2023, UNC reinstated a Western Civilization requirement for all undergraduates as part of its “Roots of Civilization” general education core, fulfilling a state mandate under the UNC System’s “America’s Founding Principles” curriculum. Enrollment in these courses surged, with more than 1,500 students enrolled in introductory sections by fall 2024, according to UNC Provost data.
• University of Florida (UF): UF launched a “Western Civ” great books program in 2024, tied to Governor Ron DeSantis’s education reforms, emphasizing primary texts from Homer to Locke. It expanded to multiple sections by 2025, drawing 20% more humanities majors, according to the UF registrar.
• Hillsdale College: This private liberal arts college has long offered robust Western Civ surveys and saw a 15% increase in program enrollment from 2022–2025, fueled by its online extension courses, which reached 50,000+ students annually.
• Other Institutions: Texas A&M added a Western Heritage course in 2024; the University of Austin (UATX), founded in 2023, centers its curriculum on Western Civ; St. John’s College and Thomas Aquinas College maintain unchanged great books programs with growing applications—up 25% since 2022.

So what are the reasons for this modest revival? Here are a few:

• Political and Legislative Pushback: Red-state legislatures (e.g., Florida, Texas, North Carolina) passed laws in 2023–2025 mandating “classical” or Western-focused curricula to counter “woke” education trends, as documented in NAS reports showing Western Civ course offerings dropped 60% from 2010–2020.
• Cultural Backlash: High-profile critiques from respected academics such as Jordan Peterson and Victor Davis Hanson, along with parental concerns following the 2020 campus protests, boosted demand. Gallup polls (2024) show 65% of Americans want more Western heritage in curricula.
• Enrollment and Market Pressures: Declining humanities majors (down 30% since 2010, per ACS data) prompted institutions to revive popular, rigorous survey classes to attract students seeking “traditional” education amid DEI fatigue.
• Administrative Shifts: Following the 2024 election, universities such as UF and UNC faced donor pressure and leadership changes that favored classical programs (e.g., UF’s new humanities dean).

These efforts remain niche—primarily in conservative-leaning or reform-minded schools—but they signal a modest reversal: the National Association of Scholars has tracked more than 50 new or revived courses since 2023, following a prior decline.

As I wrote in my previous column:

Campuses today remain battlegrounds between traditionalists who see the study of Western Civilization as a positive influence on students and radicalized professors who feel free to preach unsound notions of multiculturalism and DEI rather than the Western concepts that shaped modern theories of government, science, and aesthetics.

During a 13-year tenure as a professor and college dean at the University of Illinois, I was often appalled at how little my students understood about our history and the achievements of the great thinkers of Western Civilization.

Of course, how could they be aware of these things if, during their K-12 school years, they were consistently told that the white Europeans who settled and founded America were all evil racists and Philistines who were only in North America to slaughter the indigenous population and enslave black Africans?

How could my students appreciate the intellectual giants, most of whom were of Caucasian (gasp!) European stock, who drafted the Declaration of Independence, authored our Constitution, composed the Bill of Rights, and established a democratic Republic that is still the envy of the modern world?

The answer is simple. They couldn’t.

Western Civilization is a legacy that should not be hidden or suppressed by revisionist reprobates masquerading as historians. Instead, we should embrace and impart our Western Civilization heritage to all children, regardless of race or ethnicity.

Western Civilization, for all its alleged faults, supplied the intellectual power and emotional stamina that produced and shaped the United States of America.

I can’t think of a stronger endorsement than that.

–30–

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