A hodgepodge

This is an anthology of lectures pulled from other Great Courses. Apparently, someone decided on a list of revolutionary figures and then went in search of lectures that mention those people.

Unfortunately, the lecturers do not know that they are supposed to be talking about how or why these people were revolutionaries. Also, since the other courses vary in topic from art, history and politics it gives a very uneven feel to the work.

I couldn't finish it and would not recommend it.

46 people found this helpful

Cut and Paste version will disappoint!! (Again)

This and its companion 36 Books that Changed the World, is a compilation of material created for clearly different purposes and then pasted together under a flimsy rationale. I bought both, excited by the potential, but was very disappointed. GREAT COURSES has produced many excellent, educational and informative lecture series - this is NOT one.

16 people found this helpful

The Best Great Course Ever... Seriously

This is most definitely the greatest of the Great Courses! Instead of being one giant course on a single subject it is 36 lectures, each focusing on different men and women that have changed the world and the way we think about it. Each of the 36 lectures has been been pulled from other Great Courses, and is taught by a different lecturer who is an expert on the subject. There is a brief introduction about the lecturer, which also lets you know the name of the Great Course that each lecture comes from. The format makes this one of the most (if not the most) wide ranging and interesting of all the Great Courses that I’ve encountered.

Each of the 36 lectures of this course shines a spotlight on a different “Revolutionary Figure” from world history. While each lecture is structured slightly different due to the person giving, they are all a combination of a biography of the individual, an overview of what made them significant (ie. conquests, teachings, writings, theories, inventions), and their lasting effect on the world around them. The individuals that are profiled vary greatly, with some hailing from leadership/politics to arts/philosophy. The only common thread is that each of the figures has a proud effect on the world around them. While some lectures are better than others, they are all quite good and definitely informative.

The only downside of the course itself is that, despite having 36 lectures, it almost seems a little short in that there are probably a few extra revolutionary figures that could be included such as Nikola Tesla, Henry Ford, Martin Luther King Jr or Steve Jobs. Still, this is was one of the most interesting and engaging of the Great Courses that left me wanting to learn more by following up with the course that the lecture is taken from.

One thing that is disappointing is nowhere, either on the page or within the app is a list of the individuals who are featured in each lecture. (There is no accompanying PDF with this info either.) For those that would like to know this information here it is: 1) King Narmer 2) Confucius 3) Socrates 4) Hippocrates 5) Artaxerxes II 6) Alexander the Great 7) Virgil 8) Julius Caesar 9) Augustus Caesar 10) Jesus 11) Constantine 12) Muhammad 13) William the Conqueror 14) Thomas Aquinas 15) Geoffrey Chaucer 16) Martin Luther 17) Copernicus 18) Galileo 19) Roger Williams 20) Isaac Newton 21) Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 22) Thomas Paine 23) Samuel Slater 24) Immanuel Kant 25) Napoleon 26) Karl Marx 27) Charles Darwin 28) Harriett Beecher Stowe 29) Abraham Lincoln 30) Queen Victoria 31) Albert Einstein 32) Adolf Hitler 33) Winston Churchill 34) Gandhi 35) Mao 36) Margaret Thatcher

14 people found this helpful

Disorganized Mishmash

I was very disappointed with this. This was snippets of chapters from many courses. Kind of just a middle lecture promising either to tell more of the story in a future lecture or not having a clear beginning. Some of these were boring- if you are looking for life and times of these leaders this will not suffice. Some were even very insignificant contributions. This one was a waste of time and of one credit. I learned very little.

13 people found this helpful

ridiculous

i have purchased more than 30 Great Courses over the years. i have generally always been pleased. but this is a greedy attempt to repackage several unrelated lectures under the guise of being a "course" on revolutionary figures. pathetic

5 people found this helpful

Great Variety

I really liked this Great Course because it was 36 different lecturers talking about what they know best. There were a few historical figures I thought were missing (why a lecture on Churchill but not Lenin or Stalin or FDR?) but that's going to be the case in every series like this. What I loved was the variety of characters discussed: world leaders, artists and writers, philosophers, religious icons, scientists... It was a very rewarding listen.

Only thing to be aware of is that the lectures each individually come out of other courses, so occasionally the lecturer will refer to that course or reference previous or upcoming lectures that you aren't privy to. Otherwise really solid.

2 people found this helpful

36 Interesting Bios

This is one of those Great Courses compilations that borrows a lecture here and there from many of their books and throws them all into one volume in a way that both informs and advertises their many books. The result is 36 short bios of people who have made a major impact in the world which is worth reading even if you think you know a lot about the historical figures. For example, just about everyone has heard of Jesus Christ and knows something about him, but I had never thought about him specifically in terms of how revolutionary his idea of the Kingdom of God was.

The big drawback to this collection is that the chapter titles in the audiobook form do not mention the subject of each chapter. This greatly reduces the utility of the book for rereading. This is not the sort of volume that I think most people will want to listen to all the way through a second time. But it is the sort of volume where you might want to refresh your understanding of specific historical figures and the lack of a subject with each chapter title makes it difficult to find the person you’re interested in.

1 person found this helpful

36 History All-Stars

A well documented but brief review of the accomplishments and driving ideals of thirty-six of history's most important people.

1 person found this helpful

too disjointed and random out of context

this is a collection of parts from full courses. i knew that but expected more of an effort to create a semi-unified product. Some were great some were hardly understandable out of context. Too many were victims of forest for the trees because they had been plucked out of context. I would recommend a full course rather than these samplers -- now that I have sampled them I really do like the Great Courses and if this is all you have tried -- instead try the real full course (s) you are interested in.

1 person found this helpful

This is a compilation of cherry picked lectures

If the lectures were designed for the subject, I'm sure the result would be better. Unfortunately, since the lectures presented are individual lectures from a variety of different series, the lecturers don't stay on topic very well. Had I known these would be so disjointed I never would've purchased the audiobook.