The Modern Scholar: History of Ancient Greece

The Modern Scholar: History of Ancient Greece by Eric H. Cline

The Minoan people of Crete appear to be the first cultural Greeks. The people spread to Greece and later spread to other areas with "colonies". Turkey and Sicily all had Greek connections. Sparta and Athens were connected to different areas. Many of the stories we hear of Greece have some basis in truth. Troy was uncovered and found to have many layers. (However, we likely guessed wrong at first.) There are still a number of guesses we have made regarding ancient Greece. What new things will we discover?

Looks like I also listened to these lectures a decade ago

The Modern Scholar: The History of Ancient Israel: From the Patriarchs Through the Romans

The Modern Scholar: The History of Ancient Israel: From the Patriarchs Through the Romans by Eric H. Cline

The land of Israel has been fought over for a long millenia. In Jewish people have documented their experience extensively in the Hebrew Bible. However, there focus was on the religious message rather than the historical details. Many events occurred long before they were documented. The stories were told primarily to promote religious belief. How much can be relied on as historical fact? Scholars have been all over the place on the factuality, with some saying it is purely allegorical, while others treating it more literally. Eric Cline comes down in the middle. There may be some of both. 

We have found a few records corresponding to some events. However, it may be impossible to validate the historicity of events. The area has been built up numerous times. Some areas are also forbidden to sacred and important to be dug up by archeologists. The Dead Sea scrolls have provided some help. There may also be connections between Christianity and the "mystery religions" of Rome.

The Modern Scholar: Shakespeare: The Seven Major Tragedies

Harold Bloom knows Shakespeare well. In these lectures he drops minor bits about the actors that originally played certain roles as if it were common knowledge. He has strong opinions about Shakespeare's works and shares them in a non-confrontational manner.

The works discussed are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, McBeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Othello. I feel I know most of those by reputation more than reading or seeing performance. (I didn't realize that Hamlet had such a large number of lines in the play.)

He admires the complexity of the character of Juliet. She was a teenager but had great complexity. (Was this a problem with him writing her "too old" or was this actually a well-written character.) Shakespeare's attention was on characters. In the tragedies he explored many challenges of humanity, while also throwing in some humor. 

Much of the stories for the plays were stolen from other sources. Disney animation is in someway the closest modern parallel. Both base most of their works on older source material. This serves as the basis for working their magic and creating a more complex and entertaining work.

Upon This Rock: A History of the Papacy From Peter To John Paul II

Upon this Rock is a Modern Scholar offering presenting the history of the papacy. The papacy is tightly interwoven with the history of Europe, from the heyday of Rome to the rise of modern "Empires" and modern Europe of today. At first, the church was a minor sect. The pope had little real power outside his local flock. Gradually, the Roman ruler began to become more aristocratic and assume a greater role in society. In part due to Constantine's conversion and subservience to the church in religious matters, the pope and the church grew to gain even more strength. The papacy was the de facto government of Europe during the middle ages. The church even had its own papal lands.

Alas, at this time, the popes became more regal, worldly figures, and forgot about their pastoral missions. This led to the reformation. At first, the reformation looked like the mumblings of a few scholars. (The church did heavily support scholarship - even if at times it seemed accepted teachings.) However, things began to really catch on - especially among some leaders who say a great chance to take some of the church riches. Eventually the popes had to come back down to earth and focus again on their religious mention, and so they did.

Purpose and Persuasion: The Power of Rhetoric in American Political History

Professor Masugi traces some of the rhetorical "trends" in some of the key American political speeches. He attempts to provide a politically unbiased view of what actually made a good speech. He also emphasized how speeches were a product of their time. As time progresses, society often tends to "remember" speeches in a way different than they were heard at the time. Lincoln's Gettysburg address uses language that to us sounds archaic. However, to his audience, the biblical language was not all that unusually. The allusions to biblical versus also helped to give more power to his views.

Often in US history, big shifts in the political leanings are accompanied by a master speaker. The powerful speeches often have a way of drawing the listener to independently generate the exact thoughts that the speaker desires. In the case of Frederick Douglass, he began a speech be giving many points critical of Lincoln and his "lax" attitude towards freeing slaves. Then he turned it around and praised him for doing exactly what needed to be done at the time to maximize the freedom of his people. The speech was thus able to unite an audience of divergent views.

Franklin Roosevelt gave speeches couched in patriotism, while indirectly calling his opponents unpatriotic for not supporting his agenda. Reagan later turned the tables, telling the people how his conservative ways were the true American ways. Both were master speakers that lead to big shifts in the country's political leanings.

Obama is also a master of oratory. An the campaign trail, he stressed the unity of the country torn by a sharp political divide. His speeches are often politically neutral (often to the extend that many could have just as well been given by his opponent.) By staying away from the controversial views in his speeches, he can steer the message in the direction he desires, while the dirty work gets done elsewhere.

In the day of modern technology, we get our political information from many different sources. However, in spite of a bad reputation, political speech making remains important.

The Quest: The Historian's Search for Jesus and Muhammad

These lectures attempt to access the historical facts about two most well known religious figures in the world. While many religious teachings are known, very little is known of their actual lives.

He speaks extemporaneously, with only a page of notes. (This makes for a much better listening experience than a professor that simply reads his notes.) He sprinkles in interesting tidbits. (Muhammad is a common name in the Islamic world. However, Jesus is only common in Spain - probably in response to the common usage of Muhammad by the Muslim occupiers.)

He also is important to differentiate between Faith and History. Faith supplies answers. History asks questions (though not necessarily the same ones answered by faith.)

The lectures focus entirely on the history. The big miracles are left for faith. (Historians simply can't explain them.) The attempt is made to put these figures in their religious context. It is somewhat easier to study the roots of Christianity because he lived in a more literate society with additional contemporary accounts available. Less is known about Mohammad's society, in part because it was less literate and more nomadic. The Arab academic and political culture is also different, making detailed studies of the Koran more difficult to carry out. Academic study of the works is also often carried out be people with some degree of vested interest (usually as adherents to the faith, but sometimes as opponents.)

We have no surviving texts written by either Jesus or Mohammad. However, we do have sacred records written by their followers, as well as additional accounts. Historians seek to analyze the source and veracity of these. There records were written by men and can be reasonably evaluated from the scholarly perspective. Scholars also attempt to identify original source from which our current sources have been derived. (For instance, both Matthew and Luke appear to derive work from a common set of "sayings of Jesus". Scholars believe this was an original source available at the day that we no longer have.) An attempt is made to find the original and to identify motives for creations of the current text that we have.

In the end, we get a better understanding of the climate in which these two major religions sprouted. However, there are still a number of questions related to the early history and canonization of scripture. Scholarship can make some highly educated guesses. However, the lack of ancient details available still leaves many holes in obtaining a true understanding. Much is still left to faith.

The People's Dynasty: Culture and Society in Modern China

https://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=scholar.show_course&course_id=145

Professor Shepard does a great job of helping us understand the China of today. We does a great job of explaining the seeming paradox of rampant commercialization of a communist country. Digging below the surface, it is not that great of a paradox after all. Chinese are free to do pretty much everything they want - as long as they don't criticize the government. The one party structure is also not that different than the government in other Asian countries. Singapore has achieved huge economic success under a benevolent dictator. Japan developed under a one-party leadership. The one party system in China is not all that different.

The discussion of tourism in China helped to understand what I have seen there. Most tourist sites are filled with tour buses and many tour groups. Even the "nature" sites are overdeveloped, with many amenities and people. This is explained as a desire to visit important sites of cultural importance. The site is the important in its historical context. It is experienced collectively rather than individually.

It was also interesting to learn about the "other side" of China. In daily life, I've mostly seen the urban middle class. However, in the train station, I noticed another side of China. These included more of the lower classes and migrants. I can now see better how these classes are more severely impacted by change. The promise of communism and cradle to grave protections and benefits would have been a better situation than the hustle and bustle they are currently in. The previous peasant way of life was swept out from under there feet with a lot of hard work in its place. The high speed rail system simply makes it more expensive for them to travel back home. (As opposed to providing an alternative to flying for the middle classes.)

Another interesting discussion was on the difference between a post-car and pre-car society. The story was told of an American teacher in China who complemented the Chinese for riding their bikes everywhere in all kinds of weather. The students' response was that they didn't have an option. (A mere 25 years ago, cars were few and far between in China.) They would much rather be like in America where they didn't have to. Fast forward a few decades and cars and traffic jams are everywhere in China's big cities. The government is trying to encourage people to not drive so much. They are also undergoing massive efforts to build out subways, high speed rail and other transportation systems. I have known people in China who switched from driving to work to taking public transit - with one of the primary rationales being to increase health (by walking to stops, instead of driving everywhere.) China may really well be learning from the case of the US, and encouraging the switch to post-car society before the auto culture gets too firmly in place.

Odyssey of the West V: Enlightenment, Revolution, and Renewal

A number of different lecturers provide lectures in Odyssey of the West V.
These lectures oscillate between coverage of key people and discussions of events and movements. We get conversations on Hume and Adam Smith. And then we get the French revolution and the terror.
There are a few different lecturers participating, some better than others. My favorite is Timothy Shutt. He is always careful to discuss the "consensus" scholarly opinion, while also providing his particular view. This is especially useful when he discusses "best" novel of a certain era or genre. He almost gets me to want to read Jane Austen.

Journeys of the Great Explorers: Columbus To Cook

Journeys of the Great Explorers tells of the great explorers. We don't get much (other than passing mention) of the conquistadores. However, the stories of the explorers did pique my interest. The discovery and exploration of the west coast of America doesn't seem to have been given much discussion in other works. I would like to study more of those voyages.

Those voyages must have been like going on planetary exploration today. Sure, ship travel was common back then. But, ship travel out into the endless open water? That was not common, and would take longer than a rocketship to the moon. The sailors were also at risk for scurvy (which they did not know how to cure then.) What if we just let privateers voyage off to the moon like captains voyaged off to the new world?

Navigation was also a problem back then, with places like the Solomon Islands being "hidden" for an additional 200 years because of bad "directions".

There could also be many voyages of discovery we just don't know about; either due to failure to return, purposely hidden records, or records destroyed through the time.

Children's Literature: Between the Covers

These lectures on Children's literature attempt to tell a story of the history of books written specificity for children. "Children's" books are seen as a relatively recent innovation, starting only a few hundred years ago. Prior to that, children were just expected to read adult books (if they read at all.) Much of the early works tended to be religious and didactic in nature.

After this point, however, the professor's biases come in to play, making it hard to discern what the true path of children's writing was. The focus is very British-centric. (I guess that is appropriate since she does teach in the UK.) Very little attention is given to writing in America, and almost none to anywhere else in the world. (It would have been nice to see how it evolved in non-English speaking countries.) Also, she tends to bring emphasis to works that meet certain criteria that she is interested. This makes it tough to tell whether she is describing a dominant form of writing in a period, or just some obscure story that happens to deal with subject matter contrary to the prevailing standard.

There are a few lectures in this course that discuss the evolution of "teen" literature as a separate form from adult and children's literature. Like the children's discussion, it can be difficult to separate "history" from "agenda".

The closing remarks do hit on some important points. Many young readers are turned off literature by the way it is taught in school. They don't aren't interested in seeing some grand principle or social trend in the story. They just want a good read. Alas, this course falls victim to the "looking too much in to things" category and doesn't provide enough on the "good reads."

God Wills It!: Understanding the Crusades

Understanding the Crusades gives a history of the crusades. There were a bunch of ragamuffins that needed something to do. There were some relics of an old empire that needed some help. So, a bunch of people went out on a looting expedition, or something like that. While we often read about multiple crusades, it was really more of a continuous effort of people seeking to better themselves through conquest and church indulgences.

Empire of Gold

The Empire of Gold is a set of lectures on the history of the Byzantine Empire. While at the time, it was considered to be the Roman Empire, the Eastern empire adopted its own culture. It is somewhat ironic that the roots of the destruction of this empire lay in the Crusades. The very Christians that were sent to help the Roman empire actually helped lead to its destruction and the eventual conquest by the Muslim Turks.

Religions of the East

Religions of the East covers some of the more popular Eastern "religions". The definition of religion is important here, for some would argue that they are just philosophies and not religions. (While others that appear to be philosophies would argue that they are religions.) In these lectures they are somewhat glommed together. Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Sikhism are all covered.

The relationship between a religion and a community are also important. While a religion may be very mainstream in one area, it may be symbol of counter-cultural rebellion in another. Many of the eastern religions are much less dogmatic than western or middle-eastern religions. They often more closely resemble schools of philosophy than belief sets. (They sometimes use these characteristics to help gain inroads in the west, leading to "popular" western versions that differed significantly from the eastern versions.)

These lectures lacked some substance. There was not enough history and analysis of the belief sets and the roll that the religions have played in the society as a whole. This may be a function of trying to cram too much in to a short time period. However, there also seemed to be a little too much "fluff" in the lectures that could have been cleaned out to provide more "meat".

Epochs of European Civilization: Antiquity To Renaissance

Epochs of European Civilization: Antiquity To Renaissance starts with a lecture on the Jews.

Wait a second. Israel part of Europe?

Well, geographically, it may not be. But the European geographic boundaries are arbitrary at best. Culturally, the Jewish culture has played a big role in the European state. Christianity sprung out of Israel to become the dominant religion of Europe. Even the Jews that remained played important parts in the emergence of the European power. The Jewish bankers were indispensable to the European monarchs. Even as they were persecuting Jews, they would hold on to their key financial authorities. The separation and persecution of the Jews helped them to grow stronger and develop special skills and attributes that benefited European society. (Does that mean that the integration of Jews in to modern society will hurt them?)

These lectures pay a lot of attention to the role of religion and church within the culture of Europe. This makes a lot of sense. The Catholic can be considered the de facto continuation of the Roman empire, and spent a thousand years as the dominant force in Europe. The conversion of different peoples were also significant events in the middle ages. From this perspective, the crusades were seen as a way to "unite" the disparate small kingdoms. The underlying theme helps tie together many of the other key "battles" and "events" in ancient European history and makes for very informative lectures.

Jerusalem: The Contested City

Jerusalem: The Contested City

Jerusalem has always been somewhat of a "backwater", yet a very important "backwater" to billions of people.
These lectures were a well done history of the Jerusalem throughout the ages. The professor does a good job explaining why the city has been so important, along with the curious relationship between the local residents and the many "pilgrims" and "travelers" that visit the area. The city has been significantly impacted by others far away. Simple changes in European beliefs have caused significant changes within the city itself. It also continues to have a curious presence of Christians, Muslims and Jews. All this makes for a lively, "contested" city.

A Way With Words II: Approaches to Literature

A Way With Words II: Approaches to Literature

This continuation of the Way With Words series focuses on literature. A good junk of the early lecture is spent discussing language in general. However, here, the focus is on language use as it pertains to literature (he has other courses that provide greater detail.)

He provides a fairly balanced approach to the discussion of literature. He tends to view literature as good or bad on its own. However, he acknowledges some benefits of the narrow analysis by feminists, postmodernists and the like. (He provides examples of how they have opened up new ways of understanding along with ways they have seemed to go off the deep end on analysis.)

The discussion of the literary canon provides another area for controversial views. (Though he does not go the most controversial route in declaring a canon) Are we biased in what we consider to be important? Of course. But, if everyone else is biased, we need to understand that also.

Literature is about the feelings and "truths" that can be only told with the "lies". Some writers have a greater technical mastery than others. Some write about topics that seem to be more important or valuable. However, all of these things can be subject to personal views. Even if people with an agenda push certain literature (or attempt to blacklist other literature), there are some works that will achieve widespread appreciation.

But, something different may be more meaningful to you.

Thus is literature.

Conflicts that Shaped Pharonic Egypt

Conflicts That Shaped Pharaonic Egypt

These lectures provide a general history of Egypt from the pre-historical dominance of upper Egypt, going all the way to the crusades. Unfortunately, there is little cohesive narrative, with long digressions in to archaeological findings interspersed with attempts at storytelling. The delivery also has a lot to be desired. It is obvious the professor is reading rather than "lecturing" and his intonation can make it difficult to focus.

Icons of the Iron Age

Icons of the Iron Age: The Celts in History


She says "um" a lot. Whenever I focused on the word "um", I was too destacted to pay attention to the actual narrative. It is interesting how you can simply plot out an overly repeated word.

The story here is primarily an archaeological history. We hear a catalog of artwork and styles, with a little bit of linguistic analysis. What is lacking, however, is a narrative of the Celts and how they lived and evolved. Part of this may be caused by the lack of detailed knowledge of their life. (And this is compounded by arguments over who is actually a Celt, with the Irish and British Celts seemingly not originally being Celts.) The stories of warlike people may be exaggerated, due to the "war" settings in which they were encountered. (Similarly the "feminist" and pro-gay views may also be exaggerations or extrapolations based on limited or potentially misleading data. In the end, we really don't know a whole lot about them.

Way With Words I: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion

Way With Words


This is an introduction to rhetoric, with balanced coverage of both spoken and written communication. It starts with a brief history of rhetoric, then goes on to the "big picture" areas of organization. (It even advocated the structure of the "5 paragraph essay".) It then goes in to some details, covering logic, some tropes and scheme, and some examples of good and bad speeches.

The section on logic was easy to understand, and provided a great basis for identifying logical fallacies in arguments. The grammar section provided a balanced view of grammar rules which boiled down to "know your audience". It doesn't matter whether or not some "authority" views something as appropriate, what matters is that it will be seen as appropriate by the audience.

There was also a quick introduction to various rhetorical devices, including when to use them and when to avoid them. It left me eager to further explore the details of rhetoric.

Rings, Swords and Monsters: Exploring Fantasy Literature

These lectures almost inspired me to read some fantasy books. However, the size of the books is always intimidating. (Not to mention the fact that they tend to be boring.) However, some of the pre-Tolkein fantasy books do look like they may be worth pursuing.

The bulk of the lectures concern J.R.R. Tolkein and his Lord of the Rings. he is given extra credit for giving the linguists touch to his work and creating large "full" worlds. Many others are seen as responding to or imitating his work. In other words, the dominant form of today's popular entertainment is dominated by one person. Quite impressive. Though perhaps stretching things a little too far.

The other obervation is that fantasy often deals with "needs" rather than wants and tends to be really long. The length is definately accurate, and what has often turned me off. Sure they are full worlds. But it takes a huge effort to get in to them. Once the effort is taken, going further may be worthwhile, but why take the effort?

The lost bit touched on some non-Tolkein fantasy, such as the "King Arthur" fantasy and magical realism. T.H. White, Borges, Garcia-Marquez, etc. Now this stuff sounds interesting. Perhaps there is some fantasy for me after all.