Empires of the Steppes

Kenneth W. Harl

BLOOMSBURY

12 audio cassette in two clamshells with 2 booklets, 2 books (Lecture Transcript and Course Guidebooks) in this complete set.

The World of Byzantium, Complete Set (The Great Courses) [Audio Cassettes and Guidebooks]

Teaching Company

Byzantium is too-often considered merely the "Eastern rump" of the old Roman Empire, a curious and even unsettling mix of the classical and medieval. Yet it was, according to Professor Harl, "without a doubt the greatest state in Christendom through much of the Middle Ages," and well worth our attention as a way to widen our perspective on everything from the decline of imperial Rome to the rise of the Renaissance. In a series of 24 tellingly detailed lectures, you'll learn how the Greek-speaking empire of Byzantium, or East Rome, occupied a crucial place in both time and space that began with Constantine the Great and endured for more than a millennium - a crucible where peoples, cultures, and ideas met and melded to create a world at once Eastern and Western, Greek and Latin, classical and Christian. And you'll be dazzled by the achievements of Byzantium's emperors, patriarchs, priests, monks, artists, architects, scholars, soldiers, and officials. Preserving and extending the literary, intellectual, and aesthetic legacy of Classical and Hellenistic Greece Carrying forward path-breaking Roman accomplishments in law, politics, engineering, architecture, urban design, and military affairs Deepening Christian thought while spreading the faith to Russia and the rest of what would become the Orthodox world Developing Christian monastic institutions Shielding a comparatively weak and politically fragmented western Europe from the full force of eastern nomadic and Islamic invasions Fusing classical, Christian, and eastern influences Helping to shape the course of the Humanist revival and the Renaissance

The World of Byzantium

History

The Teaching Company

The author of these books offers 24 lectures focusing on Asia Minor, a region that has been highly significant to human history since the birth of agriculture. Throughout history is has been the crossroads of empires.

Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor (Part 1 of 2)

The Great Courses: World of Byzantium (Lectures 1-24)

The Era of the Crusades

The era of the Crusades

What were the forces that led to one of history's most protracted and legendary periods of conflict? How did they affect the three great civilizations that participated in them? And, ultimately, why did they end and what did they accomplish? In these 36 lectures, you'll look at the "big picture" of the Crusades as an ongoing period of conflict involving Western Christendom (we would now call it Western Europe), the Byzantine Empire, and the Muslim world. From this perspective, you'll study the complex but absorbing causes of the Crusades, which include the many political, cultural, and economic changes in Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. You'll examine the Crusades in terms of the specific military campaigns-the eight "canonical" Crusades that took place from 1095-1291-proclaimed to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim hands and return them to Christendom. You'll consider the immediate circumstances-the leaders, purposes, key battles, and degrees of success or failure-surrounding these often-monumental expeditions. You'll also explore a wide variety of misperceptions and long-debated questions about the Crusades: 
<ul>
<li>Did the popes preach the Crusades as a way to increase their personal power and authority?</li> <li>Why did the members of the Fourth Crusade decide to sack Constantinople, turning the Crusades from Christian against "infidel" to Christian against Christian? Taken together, these historically rich lectures are an opportunity to appreciate fully how Western Civilization changed in many profound ways during the Crusading era.</li>
</ul>

What were the forces that led to one of history's most protracted and legendary periods of conflict? How did they affect the three great civilizations that participated in them? And, ultimately, why did they end and what did they accomplish? In these 36 lectures, you'll look at the "big picture" of the Crusades as an ongoing period of conflict involving Western Christendom (we would now call it Western Europe), the Byzantine Empire, and the Muslim world. From this perspective, you'll study the complex but absorbing causes of the Crusades, which include the many political, cultural, and economic changes in Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. You'll examine the Crusades in terms of the specific military campaigns-the eight "canonical" Crusades that took place from 1095-1291-proclaimed to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim hands and return them to Christendom. You'll consider the immediate circumstances-the leaders, purposes, key battles, and degrees of success or failure-surrounding these often-monumental expeditions. You'll also explore a wide variety of misperceptions and long-debated questions about the Crusades: Did the popes preach the Crusades as a way to increase their personal power and authority? Why did the members of the Fourth Crusade decide to sack Constantinople, turning the Crusades from Christian against "infidel" to Christian against Christian? Taken together, these historically rich lectures are an opportunity to appreciate fully how Western Civilization changed in many profound ways during the Crusading era.

The Great Courses

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The Era of the Crusades: Lecture Transcript and Course Guidebook in 3 Volumes

Rome and the Barbarians

The history of the Romans as they advanced the frontiers of Classical civilization is often told as a story of warfare and conquest - the mighty legions encountering the "barbarians." But this only tells one side of the story. Who were the Celts, Goths, Huns, and Persians met by the Romans as they marched north and east? What were the political, military, and social institutions that made Rome so stable, allowing its power to be wielded against these different cultures for nearly three centuries? What role did those institutions themselves play in assimilating barbarian peoples? These 36 engaging lectures tell the story of the complex relationship between each of these native peoples and their Roman conquerors as they intermarried, exchanged ideas and mores, and, in the ensuing provincial Roman cultures, formed the basis of Western European civilization. You'll study the institutions that made Rome so extraordinary, as well as the extraordinary figures - both Roman and barbarian - whose names have been familiar to us for so long. You'll learn about Augustus, Constantine I, Diocletian, Gaius Julius Caesar, Nero, Attila the Hun, as well as a myriad of figures whose names are less familiar to us. But these lectures deliver far more than personal snapshots, as compelling as those may be. Professor Harl brings to life the institutions that shaped both Rome and her relationship with, and assimilation of, the barbarians at her constantly expanding frontiers. You'll come away with a new appreciation of how our Western world came to be and detailed knowledge about the individuals from royalty to "barbarian" who played key roles in that process.

The Teaching Company/ The Great Courses

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kenneth W. Harl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kenneth W. Harl

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kenneth W. Harl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Empires of the Steppes

The World of Byzantium, Complete Set (The Great Courses) [Audio Cassettes and Guidebooks]

The World of Byzantium

Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor (Part 1 of 2)

The Great Courses: World of Byzantium (Lectures 1-24)

The era of the Crusades

The Era of the Crusades

The Era of the Crusades

The Era of the Crusades: Lecture Transcript and Course Guidebook in 3 Volumes

Rome and the Barbarians