Gregory S. Aldrete - History of the Ancient World. A Global Perspective [2011] [A]

Even though you might never stop to think about it, the ancient world and the civilizations it produced are with you in almost everything you do. The ancient world has influenced our customs and religious beliefs, our laws, and the form of our governments. It has taught us when and how we make war or pursue peace. It has shaped the buildings we live and work in and the art we hang on our walls. It has given us the calendar that organizes our year and has left its mark on the games we play.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Great, great course
By Ron D on December 12, 2013
Format: Unknown Binding
Gregory Aldrete's lectures are great. He gets to the core of subjects, consistently talks about historical bias and how we know what we know, provides a realistic interpretation of everyday life in the ancient world, follows common themes that enable us to compare different ancient civilizations through a single narrative, and provides a wry, informative delivery style that makes learning about this subject actually fun. I highly recommend this course.

Excellent course!
By Katherine S on September 13, 2013
Format: Audio CD [I know this is a review for the CD, but since the book is a transcription of the CD, it's still a review of the same product.]
I highly recommend this course to anyone wishing to obtain a solid foundational understanding of ancient world history. It is well-taught, entertaining, and informative.
The course was perfect for someone like me--I love history, but have long felt that my general awareness of the timeline of world civilizations was lacking. Now that I have taken the course, for the first time in my life I have a solid understanding of how the world's greatest civilizations fit together, what made them great, and when and how they rose and fell.
The course is entertaining and engaging. I connected with the professor, who was young, dynamic and personable. He laid out the information in an easy-to-follow style that contained both depth and focus. The course was dense enough that after time had passed I found myself opening the course booklet to remind myself of details from previous lectures, but it was well taught so that even without the details I easily retained the gist of the material.
The course focused especially on western civilizations, dwelling in more detail on ancient Greece and Rome (including the Byzantine empire). It also included lectures on ancient China, India, the Americas and Polynesia, though those were fewer. I appreciated the professor's commentary on the nature of historical information: he was good about stating caveats about what we know vs. what we don't know, mentioning when certain theories are still being debated, and describing broad trends such as history's tendency to focus on urban culture.
This was the first Great Course I have ever taken and it has prompted me to seek out more of them. In addition, though I obtained this course from the library and have already finished it, I liked it so much that I plan to purchase it so that I can watch it a few more times later on and so that I can own the very useful course booklet. Highly recommended!