Catalog Search Results
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 5
Language
English
Description
This lecture examines the notion of the "self-made man" as it pervaded Gilded Age America. Investigate why this idea took on unprecedented popularity in the 19th century, how it was strongly promoted by figures from Horatio Alger to Andrew Carnegie, and explore how the ideal became entwined with social Darwinism.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 33
Language
English
Description
Here, an obscure battle in Mongolia produced global effects. Track the tensions between Russia and Japan that led to a bloody border conflict that neither side had sought. Grasp how this one event directly contributed to both the outbreak of war in the Pacific and Europe and the outcome of the war itself.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 2
Language
English
Description
Travel to the iconic sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy-Roman towns that were famously destroyed by the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Learn about the history of their excavation, and witness the astonishing preservation of buildings, objects, and human remains. Delve deeper to discover fascinating details of ancient Roman life.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Language
English
Description
Continue with an in-depth visit to Avignon's Palace of the Popes, one of the most elaborate and luxurious palaces of the Middle Ages, highlighting the sumptuous private apartments and the settings of dazzling papal ceremonies. Also learn about Avignon's Jewish history, and walk the evocative, cobbled medieval streets.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 30
Language
English
Description
After World War II, a tense series of events led the subcontinent's brutal partition into India and Pakistan-majority Hindu and Muslim nations, respectively. Find out how the British, battered by the war, ceded their empire and hastily created two nation-states whose borders and contested identities left a troubled legacy felt even today.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 28
Language
English
Description
As one of the true geniuses of Irish drama, Sean O'Casey is a master of the tragicomedy, bringing Ireland's working class to life. Here, you'll study three of his plays from the 1920s and find out not only what makes him a great writer, but also how history shaped the drama he produced.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 24
Language
English
Description
In late 1776, the rebellion of the American colonists appeared to be heading for dismal failure. Here, uncover the dramatic events that were the pivot point of the war. Learn how George Washington, in two critical battles, undertook bold actions to surprise and outwit the British, saving and revitalizing the revolutionary movement.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 2
Language
English
Description
Step back more than 30,000 years as you view some of the earliest known art in the world- a fabulous gallery of animals painted on the cave walls at Chauvet. These paintings tell us something profound about the Paleolithic mind and force us to reconsider our own ideas about "primitive" art.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
Unpack the story of one of the most famous days in French history. In the wake of the Estates-General crisis, hungry crowds gathered in the streets of Paris. As the king gathered troops around Versailles, the politics of hunger took over in the streets and the crowds stormed the Bastille, sparking a nationwide revolution.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 29
Language
English
Description
While Gandhi advocated one path for reform, many of his contemporaries offered other ways to promote the rights of lower classes and Muslims. Meet Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, three influential social and political leaders, and review their approaches toward national independence and people's rights.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 20
Language
English
Description
Turn now to a section of the Mahabharata known as the Bhagavad Gita. You'll peel back the layers behind the popular story of the warrior Arjuna; learn how to read the Gita as a devotional story and a manual for life; and discover how it shaped Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 22
Language
English
Description
While Joyce was sending his fictional hero off to become a great artist, Ireland's great real-life poetic hero Yeats was making his own transition from a mystic and romantic dreamer to a modernist poet, with a little guidance from Ezra Pound. As you watch this transition, reflect on the Protestant Ascendancy world from which Yeats emerged.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 23
Language
English
Description
How did a bureaucratic blunder by a Politburo member lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall? Find out as you examine the surprisingly peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union and Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 12
Language
English
Description
Here, encounter the heretical Cathars, who opposed the Roman church, and the resulting Albigensian Crusade, called to destroy them. Follow the response of the church in the grim events of the Inquisition, and visit the Inquisition Tower, the great cathedral of St. Nazaire, and other sites linked to the conflict.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 16
Language
English
Description
The lives of American women changed in far-reaching ways during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Trace late-19th-century social trends that led to more public roles for women and emerging ideas of women's rights. Learn about the women's suffrage movement and its embattled crusade to gain voting rights for women.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 32
Language
English
Description
Go inside the Moche society in ancient Peru and marvel at the beautiful metal jewelry discovered in the Sipan tombs. Beyond the beauty and the sophisticated metalwork of the Moche earspools, the tomb of Sipan gives us a window into Moche society-including sacrificial ceremonies once believed to be purely mythical.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 51
Language
English
Description
Get an introduction to the earth-diver creation myths, and learn how many other peoples near the Iroquois and far away tell the same kind of story. You'll also consider myths that deal with the founding of various groups-different from what we normally think of as Native American myths, since they deal not with the long-ago mythic past but rather with a more recent, historical past.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 4
Language
English
Description
See how events that began in revolutionary Paris inspired the expressive content of Haydn's Mass in the Time of War. Delve into the dramatic unfolding of the French Revolution, the subsequent rise of Napoleon, and the impending threat his war machine posed to Vienna. Hear the dramatic, martial character of Haydn's mass as a triumphant musical exhortation to victory against Napoleon's army.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 6
Language
English
Description
The Thirty Years War involved some million soldiers and mass civilian casualties. Explore the significance of the Peace of Westphalia, the settlement that ended the war in 1648-a vital turning point that still shapes how international politics are handled.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 21
Language
English
Description
In his two overtly Arthurian operas, observe how Richard Wagner adapted and modified the Arthurian legend to dramatize social and religious ideals, linking these ideals with Germany itself. On our own shores, grasp how Mark Twain satirized the saga in Connecticut Yankee, critiquing both European aristocracy and American society.
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