Jazz is a uniquely American art form, one of America's great contributions to not only musical culture, but world culture, with each generation of musicians applying new levels of creativity that take the music in unexpected directions that defy definition, category, and stagnation. Now you can learn the basics and history of this intoxicating genre in an eight-lecture series that is as free-flowing and original as the art form itself. You'll follow

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Lectures on Greek history from the late Bronze Age to the time of Alexander the Great, concentrating on the period from 600 to 400 B.C.

Dr. Vandiver introduces the great epic of ancient Greeks, the Iliad. She addresses critical and interpretative issues, and gives background information on cultural assumptions.

Examines the causes of the American Civil War, why the North won, how military campaigns unfolded, and how the war affected various elements of American society.

Examines the life and works of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.

American University professor Allan J. Lichtman delivers forty-eight lectures on twelve of America's presidents.

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...

His friend, colleague, and esteemed political foe Clement Attlee once memorialized Winston Churchill as "the greatest Englishman of our time - I think the greatest citizen of the world of our time." More than a half-century later, Churchill's life remains proof that a single individual can change the course of history for the better and make of life a blessed and noble thing, despite public and private trials too numerous to name. Who was this

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