"To understand the roots of personality is to understand motivations and influences that shape behavior, which in turn reflect how you deal with the opportunities and challenges of everyday life. That's the focus of these exciting 24 lectures, in which you examine the differences in people's personalities, where these differences come from, and how they shape our lives. Drawing on information gleaned from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics, Professor...

"For the past few hundred years, most of what we've been taught about the native cultures of North America came from reports authored by the conquerors and colonizers who destroyed them. Now'with the technological advances of modern archaeology and a new perspective on world history-we are finally able to piece together their compelling true stories. In Ancient Civilizations of North America, Professor Edwin Barnhart, Director of the Maya Exploration...

For the past 2,500 years, we've heard about the Persian Empire as 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 it turns out this image is inaccurate. As recent scholarship shows, the Persian Empire was arguably the world's first global power- a diverse, multicultural empire with flourishing businesses and people on the move. The key is to look

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In these lectures you will cover Lewis's spiritual autobiography and other creative works, as well as his scholarly writings that reflect on pain and grief, love and friendship, prophecy and miracles, and education and mythology.

This bold 24-lecture course examines many commonly held myths and half-truths about American history and prompts you to think about what really happened in the nation's past-as opposed to what many believe happened. Delivered by award-winning scholar and Professor Mark A. Stoler of the University of Vermont, these lectures demonstrate how reconsidering some of hte most popular notions of U.S. history can yield new (and sometimes startlingly different)...

This 24-lecture course is intended to help you analyze and appreciate the long poem by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) known as the Divine Comedy.

Introduces the plays of Shakespeare and explores the reasons why Shakespeare is the leading playwright in Western civilization.

Professor Vandiver makes it clear why, after almost 3,000 years, the Homeric epics remain not only among the greatest adventure stories ever told, but also two of the most compelling meditations on the human condition ever written. Questions include, why does Odysseus long so powerfully to go home? What are the limits of our freedom? Who or what shapes our actions and our ends? What holds people together and keeps them going--or drives them apart...

"Join three literary scholars and award-winning professors as they introduce you to dozens of short masterpieces that you can finish-- and engage with-- in a day or less with A day's read. Professor Arnold Weinstein of Brown University and Professor Grant L. Voth of Monterey Peninsula College-- two of our most popular literature professors-- are joined by award-winning Professor Emily Allen of Purdue University. Together, all three offer you their...