This series is awesome! It starts with western civilization's earliest literature and tells the historical development through literature. The coolest part is that each literary work is covered in a lecture by a leading expert on that particular work/author. ( )

This series is awesome! It starts with western civilization's earliest literature and tells the historical development through literature. The coolest part is that each literary work is covered in a lecture by a leading expert on that particular work/author. ( )

This is a very Western Civilization minded series of lectures that focuses on the Great Books of the West and draws together events and evidence of those events in order to place these works of literature, and occasionally art, in a context that leads listeners from Then to Now in a coherent way. The lectures are given by four different professors, three of whom I’d heard before and enjoyed utterly, and allow them to focus on one or two people or events or aspects of the time frame given.

My only real complaint is that the Hebrews get three lectures, and the Babylonians only one. I understand that we are obsessed academically with how much we owe to Plato and Aristotle and Sophocles, Euripedes, Aristophanes, et al., but there are other influences. Fortunately, one of the biggest themes of these lectures is the challenge to self-directed learning. Everyone, to a professor, encourages listener/learners to go out into the world, away from their audio devices, and read these books, travel to these lands, interact with the works face to face. It is absolutely contagious, this excitement to learn.

I understand that there are many who believe that literature is most Truthfully studied apart from its historical or social context, but I am not really one of those people. Particularly in the case of ancient drama, or any drama that is from a time or culture with which I am unfamiliar. It seems to me that much like the act of theatre itself, any long-lasting understanding of the work is going to require submersion in the event: in the event of the drama. Given the oral nascence of the works of philosophers and bards (Plato and Homer specifically), the idea that a lecture is going to convey more about the world in which these works were created than a book is probably not far off.

I recommend these lectures to anyone who is reading these materials for a course, or who is building a reading history and would like an accessible and solid introduction to these works. The lectures are engaging, the professors are clear and easy to listen to and the time is very well spent.

It was with a great sadness that I read on facebook of the end of the Modern Scholar’s series as of the end of 2011. I look forward to the day when I can own several of the titles on Playaway or downloaded onto a hard drive and just listen to my heart’s content. (As I understand it, the titles will still be available through other websites, check recordedbooks.com for more info, I think.) ( )

These audio books provide a wonderful overview of classical western thought. See my site for the lecture outlines of all 3 volumes ( )

This course is an interdisciplinary series of connected lectures by eminent scholars from several colleges and universities. The lectures draws upon the resources of history, philosophy, literary study, art history, religious studies, political science and the history of science and technology, in hopes of engaging the rich and profoundly interactive discussions that, over forty centuries, have made western culture what it is. ( )