Christopher

Tedious at points but well worth it.

Revisado: 06-17-19

Narrator was quite good... I did think perhaps the voice of Esmeralda could have been imbued with more dignity, but overall, was very well done.

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Just shy of perfection.

Revisado: 01-20-18

This course is loaded with expertly presented material. The professor is gifted, very careful, and passionate. I thought the final chapters which sought to reflect back on the material were somewhat less tightly focused.

Overall, however, this course is brilliantly crafted and delivered.

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Good but deficient

Revisado: 09-27-17

I found the course at turns engaging and informative, but also frustrating.

I did find that I learned a lot about Nietzche, but I feel that much of the course could have been clearer, and maybe the content would have been handled more delicately in different hands.

This isn't to say the professors were terrible, because they were quite good in many ways.... I just felt that they weren't quite masterful when it came to explaining some of the finer detailed points.

For example, too often the professors leaned on vague descriptions like "there's a sense in which A or B"... to explain their point, but this want really helpful in understanding nuanced philosophical points... since there's a sense in which thin people are fat and there's a sense in which fat people are thin.... this expression was used constantly, and it seemed to be a way of gliding past a more careful elucidation.

Also, it seemed to me that the professors tended to only offer up not much more than straw man arguments for those points of view which oppose Nietzche's point of view. The result is that some explanations just seem lacking in the necessary level of sophistication for "The Great Courses."

The professor's explaination of the shortcomings of Kant's "Categorical Imperative" comes to mind.

The professor tries to make the point that any attempt at applying rules fairly inevitably disadvantages some people, and he uses the example of telling his students that he will give them all A's, and how this will disadvantage those students who work hard. Yes, the point of grading is to reward excellence.

There's another point at which the professor basically, though probably inadvertantly, compares the pope of the Catholic Church, to an alpha male baboon at the zoo in a hypothetical situation where the beta baboons invent an invisible zookeeper to keep the alpha male's behavior in check.



I think the professors were pretty good, just not exactly world class, which I've come to expect from the Teaching Company.

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Great, but...

Revisado: 07-25-17

Professor Brier is really great. He is highly engaging, personable, and passionate.

The course covers a ton of material, but I found myself wondering why some basic things somehow didn't make the cut.

For example, Professor Brier says he will tell us everything we want to know about pyramid building, but he never gets around to even describing the process by which these gigantic blocks were cut and lifted.

For another example, Professor Brier never examines the extent of slavery in Egypt with any direct focus. He mentions that the slaves did not build the pyramids, but never really how slavery worked in Egypt.

Almost no time is spent discussing daily life in Egypt, and if it is because nothing is known, well that isn't mentioned either.

Aside from these criticisms, the course by Professor Brier is really fantastic and I highly recommend it.

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Fantastic.

Revisado: 06-15-17

Broad expertise kept afloat with sustained enthusiasm and light heartedness.

Delivered in general, with enough spunk to be interesting, and enough humility not to be offensive.

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Largely riveting and masterful.

Revisado: 04-04-17

Largely riveting and masterful.

There were a couple moments when it seemed as though a common theme was becoming repetitive and the point was belabored (that the American command at the top was inept, arrogant, and out of touch with the realities on the ground) but overall, the book marvelously tells important history.

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Sooooo goood

Revisado: 03-20-17

Fantastically enlightening and enlighteningly fantastic​. His Margaret Thatcher impression was annoying and somewhat inappropriate. I recommend it highly.

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Expert and highly engaging!!!

Revisado: 10-17-16

Loved it. The professor has passion as well as a mastery of the subject matter.

Excellent delivery... excellent all around.

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A+++

Revisado: 10-05-16

Professor Harl's presentation here is truly masterful. It is difficult to believe how deeply he understands the subject matter.

His delivery is clearly passionate, and thoroughly articulate.

Occasionally the professor trips over words as he works to communicate sentences, but other than that... his presentation is superhuman.

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Riveting and Enriching

Revisado: 08-24-16

This professor is elite.
He is passionate about the material, deeply knowledgeable, and a talented eloquent communicator.


Part of me wished that a bit more time could have been spent discussing the specifics of what made certain masterpieces so magnificent (eg why was the Mona Lisa so genius?) and part of me wished that the relationship to other cultures could have been explored more (eg... is Shakespeare a product of the Renaissance? Did England benefit from the Italian Renaissance? If so, how?.... eg how was it that the Portuguese managed to beat the pants off the Italians in exploration if the Italian Renaissance represented such a vibrant and unique atmosphere of intellectuality and innovation?)



Nevertheless, this course is magnificent... I learned so much and enjoyed it immensely.

Highly recommend.

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