For years, The Great Courses has taken lifelong learners on stirring explorations of our ancient roots; ones that bring you face to face with what history means, and how we use it to understand both the past and the present. So where's the best place to start? Right here with this eclectic and insightful collection of 36 lectures curated from our most popular ancient history courses. Guided by some of our most highly rated and award-winning professors

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"In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No...

Twelve lectures that focus on the fascinating leaders of ancient Egypt. By recounting the lives and accomplishments of the great ones of Egypt, they will present a history of Egypt spreading over 30 centuries.

What do we know about the Persian Empire? For most of the past 2,500 years, we've heard about it from the ancient Greek perspective: a decadent civilization run by despots, the villains who lost the Battle of Marathon and supplied the fodder for bad guys in literature and film. But is this image really accurate? Professor Lee's The Persian Empire captures the people, the strength, the rise, and the downfall of this great empire, revealing the complexity...

Professor Harl begins with the Bronze Age and the emergence of urban-based literate civilizations and carries the story forward until the demise of Persia's great empire at the hands of the Greeks, who embraced many of the achievements of these Near East civilizations but clearly represented a different kind of civilization, built on different institutions. Along the way, he examines advances like the invention and evolution of writing; the development...

"This course combines a sweeping survey of all world history, from the beginnings of civilization up until the origins of the modern world were established, with targeted in-depth analysis of key figures, moments, and inventions. Its goal is to provide a solid foundational knowledge of the ancient world and deeper insight into the present."--Page 2 of scope note.

So much of our historical knowledge is rooted in Western civilization, from the stories of ancient Greece and Rome to the intellectual developments of the Renaissance. But this history tells only part of the story of our global world. Eastern civilization has its own fascinating story, with consequences that matter deeply to our lives today. How did Eastern civilization--particularly that of China, Korea, Japan, and the nations of Southeast Asia--develop?...

Classical archaeology, the excavation and analysis of ancient Greek and Roman sites, has been one of the leading branches of archaeology, pioneering its basic methods and major innovations. In these 36 half-hour lectures, Dr. John R. Hale of the University of Louisville guides the listener through 18th-century excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, tours many important archaeological sites or discoveries, from the Bronze Age to late antiquity, and...

Featuring a day in the life of early humans as they paint woolly mammoths on the walls of a cave, a fierce gladiator battling in the Colosseum and a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during World War II. And not forgetting the animals of history - from a day in the life of Hannibal's war elephant marching over the Alps and an Egyptian cat (worshiped as a god, of course) to a Galapagos tortoise who meets Charles Darwin on his famous voyage of the Beagle...

Return to the scene of the crime in "Elementary: The Second Season", with all 24 gripping episodes collected on for the first time on DVD in this 6 disc collection. Jonny Lee Miller returns in this modern-day take on Sherlock Holmes, the dangerously eccentric consulting detective who's addicted to impossible cases. Lucy Liu stars as Dr. Joan Watson, his "sober companion" turned partner in detection. Together, they take on some of the strangest crimes...