The Great Courses
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 19
Language
English
Description
Get inside Indian culture with this lecture on its two great epics: the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Both are frame narratives that bring together hundreds of smaller stories. Both help establish Vishnu's importance among other Hindu gods. And both have had a lasting effect on Indian spirituality, politics, and literature.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 18
Language
English
Description
Shift your attention back to the political sphere where, after the defeat of Parnell's Home Rule Bill, rebellious organizers began pushing for reforms of their own. Dig into the events surrounding the Dublin lockout, including the Bloody Sunday massacre, and then consider Ireland's role in World War I.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 15
Language
English
Description
Learn how to avoid the perils of overfitting, which is when an overly complex model or noisy data leads to flawed conclusions. Explore object lessons in this common pitfall, including an earthquake forecast that was disastrously wrong.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Language
English
Description
The village of Walsham provides a vivid view of how English society was upended by the plague. Learn about the manorial system, where peasants lived under a local lord and landholder. Discover how the plague's death toll dramatically altered the balance of power between labor and management, transforming the economic opportunities of peasants.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 21
Language
English
Description
In this second lecture on Portrait, consider how the English language presents a great tension for Irish writers, and see how Joyce's solution was to conquer the language of the conquerors. Then watch as the book's hero, Stephen Dedalus, takes his first steps as an artist to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.
6) Heroes and Legends: The Most Influential Characters of Literature: Elizabeth Bennet - A Proper Pride
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 12
Language
English
Description
Meet the charming heroine from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The story of her complicated relationship with Mr. Darcy is a realistic Cinderella story and has lent itself to numerous adaptations, including Bridget Jones's Diary. Consider the integral role that money and social class play in this classic tale of love and romance.
7) Archaeology: An Introduction to the World's Greatest Sites: Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük, and Jericho
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
Among significant Neolithic (New Stone Age) sites, explore Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, whose imposing stone rings are the oldest known examples of monumental architecture in the early Near East. Continue to Jericho, with its extraordinary tombs and famous tower, and Turkey's Çatalhöyük, noted for its mysterious houses built without doors or windows.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 23
Language
English
Description
The outbreak of Ebola in 2014 in West Africa became an international crisis in a matter of weeks-even traveling across the ocean to the United States. Explore deadly emerging and reemerging diseases that continually challenge our detection and response abilities.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 8
Language
English
Description
As context for studying the music of Chopin, delve into the aesthetics of 19th-century Romanticism, its emphasis on self-expression, and its model of the artist-hero. Discover the lyric intimacy, harmonic ingenuity, and expressive nuance of these exquisite miniatures, as each prelude evokes a single emotional environment.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 1
Language
English
Description
Grasp how Thomas Morley's madrigals in praise of Queen Elizabeth I engaged with English national self-perception and myth, and how Leon Janáček and Frédéric Chopin responded to political events in key works. Take account of how magnified emotions stirred by human conflicts feed artistic creation, and how artists have managed to convert the most terrible of human experiences into transcendent art.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 4
Language
English
Description
Mozart single-handedly enlarged the scale, virtuosity, and importance of the piano sonata. Track Mozart's rise as a keyboard prodigy and his transition from the harpsichord to writing music specifically for the piano. Through the great C Minor Sonata, grasp his lyric, operatic use of the piano that looks toward the music of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 11
Language
English
Description
Travel south for a tour of the great barbeque styles (vinegar-, ketchup- or mustard-based) and places (the Carolinas, Tennessee, St. Louis, and Texas). After exploring the history and culture of barbeque, see how to make your own with a variety of meats, dry rubs, and sauces. Cook everything from pork butts to ribs to brisket.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 4
Language
English
Description
See how the cognitive changes of aging relate to the biological changes discussed in the previous lectures. It turns out that regions of the brain associated with processing speed, executive function, and episodic memory are more susceptible to aging, which may explain why these cognitive functions are particularly susceptible to decline.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 5
Language
English
Description
Learn how distances in the solar system were first determined. Then chart Henry Cavendish's historic experiment that found the value of Newton's gravitational constant. Cavendish's work allows almost everything in the universe to be weighed. Then see a confirmation of the equivalence principle, which says that gravitational and inertial mass are identical.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
When is a risky project worth doing? Learn how corporate managers decide whether they should undertake a new enterprise. Discover that simple graphic aids, such as scenario analysis and decision trees, are powerful tools for weighing risk in both business and daily life.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 15
Language
English
Description
In its construction, this lovely medieval city and former maritime republic was intended to rival Venice. Enter through the perfectly preserved city walls and study the elaborate fortifications. Trace Dubrovnik's history of enlightened government as the tour visits elegant civic structures, churches, and the Sponza Palace, one of Dalmatia's most beautiful buildings.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Language
English
Description
Although CBT was developed for the treatment of psychopathology and negative mood states, it has more recently been used as a way to encourage or induce positive emotion. Explore recent scientific studies about happiness, and learn which exercises are most effective for cultivating improved mood.
18) Archaeology: An Introduction to the World's Greatest Sites: From the Aztecs to Future Archaeology
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 24
Language
English
Description
Finally, travel to the site of Tenochtitlan, buried under modern Mexico City, and to Teotihuacan, with its vast pyramids and temples along the Avenue of the Dead. Conclude the course by considering how future archaeologists may interpret our own culture someday, and reflect on archaeology's contributions to our collective knowledge and our humanity.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 13
Language
English
Description
Turn to the French colonies and ask what the Revolution meant in places such as Saint-Domingue, the colony that would soon become the independent nation of Haiti. Did the Declaration of the Rights of Man apply to free people of color? Would the Revolution abolish the slave trade? These questions would take several years to answer.
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.