James Ray Griffith

Superior Retelling of a Timeless Tale

Revisado: 05-10-21

Superior Retelling of a timeless yale of the dogs of war. No society knows what will happen when they let slip the dogs of war. On the surface Athens with its greater economic power, experienced fleet, and empire should have won. In a War Like No Other we see the Athenians and her allies simply unravel with civil war inside, and a gradually evolving fraticidal war with Sparta and her allies that threw off all previous fragile social restraints and plunged them all into chaos. Add a plague, a democracy unhinged without a constitutional anchor, the driven by the moral imperative of war to kill the enemy, and unscrupulous and often incompetent leaders and anything can happen. Well done Dr. Hanson.

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Great Social History of Great Britain

Revisado: 04-12-21

This is a review of the History of Great Britain by Peter Ackroyd. A refreshing in depth look at the history social and political of Great Britain from prehistoric to the death of Victoria. I have read and greatly enjoyed reading in my youth the sweeping prose of Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples but Ackroyd's is much more focused on Britain and its people and characters and thus much more informative. I look forward to his final volume Innovation that will carry the series from the Edwardian era to the present.

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Absolutely Enthralling Survey

Revisado: 03-03-21

Dr. Dise begins by asking why empire, what takes countries along the path to become empire. The paths are varied and for the Middle East encompass nearly 2,500 years but in the end of the course he asks the same question like a moral and historical bookend. The answer he says lives in the heart and dreams of a foundling Sargon. A wonderful course with political insights about Middle Eastern diplomacy that ring as true today as in the heart of little Sargon.

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A Sad Narration

Revisado: 11-22-20

For all the guilt our nation feels now for how we acquired the land of the Native Americans it is hard to see how it could have been different. Unlike slavery which was a self inflicted wound by North, South, and West and could have early on been perhaps legislated away, the division between Native and nonnative was a clash of culture, ideals of land use and a hundred other irreconcilable factors that made for a violent shifting frontier.

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Moving and heroic

Revisado: 10-03-20

An excellent, detailed but movingly personal account if the life of the last Native American leader capable of halting the tide of European advancement in North America. As was stated by his arch enemy William Harrison years later had Tecumseh been born earlier he might have managed to create an amalgamation Red Nation. It was not to be. Too many factors, too much distance, too many divisions and jealosies, and too poor communications all contributed to his sorrow in the heart failure. An excellent read.

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A look into the past a look into the future

Revisado: 08-04-20

A wonderful course infused with a large measure of real horror but a larger measure of grit, humanity and hope. I will certainly take Dr. Armstrong course on the Middle Âgés. She is humorous without being macabre and informative with being academically pretentious.

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Thought Provoking Book

Revisado: 05-13-20

A carefully drawn out book on the rise, ascendance, dominance and future of homo sapiens. Great analysis on the three and now possibly four revolutions that have shaped human history. Excellent discussion on the multiple possible futures ahead. A great read.

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Another Wonderful Course by Dr. Greenberg!

Revisado: 05-06-20

I have always enjoyed a few of Bach's compositions but was pretty much ignorant of the scope of his work and the musical antecedents from the Italian and French Baroque. This course was an eye opener especially to the debt Bach's cantatas owed to Italian opera. As always Dr. Greenberg made this musical journey informative and entertaining.

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A wonderful survey of Robert and Clara Dchumann

Revisado: 03-06-20

As always Dr. Greenberg takes a compassionate, respectful and I believe accurate survey of the lives and works of Robert and Clara Schumann. I also enjoy the humor Dr Greenberg brings to all his courses. Since Felix Mendelssohn was such a major influence in their lives and fortunes I wish Dr Greenberg would do a course in this other wonderful complex musical couple Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn.

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Testament of our Times

Revisado: 01-24-20

I grew up in a safe America, went to college during Vietnam and listened to so many of my peers flirt with communism and socialism. I also fell in love with the music of Shostakovich and the prose of Solzhenitsyn. They were both blessed and cursed to live in a time of monsters. The monsters shaped their times and their voices in wonderful and horrible ways, but ah what voices. They left a testament to our times recording both their and their cultures sufferings and struggles. After hearing this course I heard more clearly the voices beneath the beauty and wept for what was lost for their generation but preserved for us.

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