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Conquest of the Americas

Written by: Marshall C. Eakin, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Marshall C. Eakin
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Publisher's Summary

Was Christopher Columbus's voyage to the Americas in 1492 the most important event in the history of the world?

Professor Eakin's provocative answer is a resounding "Yes" - as he presents his case in an intriguing series of 24 lectures. He argues that the voyage gave birth to the distinct identity of the Americas today by creating a collision between three distinct cultures - European, African, and Native American - that radically transformed the view of the world on both sides of the Atlantic. These thoughtful lectures will remind you that when Columbus completed his voyage, he found a people unlike any he had ever known, living in a land unmentioned in any of the great touchstones of Western knowledge. You'll learn how the European world, animated by the great dynamic forces of the day, Christianity and commercial capitalism, reacted to Columbus's discovery with voyages of conquest-territorial, cultural, and spiritual - throughout the New World. And you'll see the traumatic consequences - not only for the native peoples of the Americas, but for the people of Africa, as well, millions of whom had their lives altered by the transatlantic slave trade that resulted. Yet these lectures are far more than an account of heroes and villains, or victors and victims. They form a dramatic, sweeping tale of the complex blending of three peoples into one-forming new societies and cultures that were neither European, African, nor Native American, but uniquely American. While Professor Eakin readily identifies his own interpretation of events, he generously showcases competing views, and you'll benefit enormously from the many works he cites for further study.

©2002 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2002 The Great Courses

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Where are lessons 13 to 24?

The course intro and the PDF refer to 24 lectures. There are only 12 available here. What gives?

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Impeccably Organized Introduction

To be honest, the material presented in this lecture series is actually pretty boring. The dry, dry, dry names, dates, and motivations could easily make your eyes go blurry.. and the lecturer doesn't do much to enliven the material.
The course also has some notable deficiencies: on the one hand, professor Marshall E. Eakin's reticence to take a stand on whether the conquest of the New World was a "good" or a "bad" thing is appreciated (he merely presents the information and invites learners to draw their own conclusions).. but on the other, the "fence-sitting" (except for in Lecture 19) is maddening.
In addition, his review is awfully superficial - introducing issues like warfare & genocide, disease & immunity deficiencies, commerce & economics, religion & subjugation, and slavery & plantation structure - without getting very in-depth for any one of the topics. This lecture series is often a strikingly cursory survey.
Fortunately, the presentation & course structure more than make up for the deficiencies. I never found myself bored.

Eakin's lecture style is admirably didactic - and his peerless diction accompanies incredibly comfortable timbre and cadence. I felt like I was back in a darkened classroom, furiously scribbling notes. Eakins occasionally stumbles over his own words, but this is an easy-to-consume audiocourse.
The best aspect of the presentation, however, is an incredibly useful syllabus-quality PDF containing a timeline, maps, a glossary of terms, short biographies of key figures, a Bibliography, and lecture-by-lecture outlines/questions to ponder/suggested readings.

I have downloaded quite a few of these audiocourses - many covering material that I studied in Undergrad - and this is one of the most logically structured that I have encountered. If you're okay with what amounts to a somewhat milquetoast survey of the relevant issues worthy of discussion regarding the European expansion to the Americas (I was), this 9/10 star recording is fantastic.

[Note: Following the PDF further reading suggestions will no doubt improve your experience if you're treating the course as an academic endeavor]

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