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The World of Byzantium

Written by: Kenneth W. Harl, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Kenneth W. Harl
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Publisher's Summary

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

    PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2001 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2001 The Great Courses

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Great history

A very nice historical book that i enjoyed very much from the great courses. Five stars from me.

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Too fast

He speaks with enthusiasm but comes across as an angry person! If he is a lecturer he needs to think of the audience's grasp of the material and he should slow down and put more thoughtful emphasis on certain words for example. Instead he pushes through like a train.

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A good, but perhaps brief, history

I enjoy all of the lectures from this historian, and this series was no exception. It was perhaps a bit compressed though - realistically, it's tough to cover 1200 years if history in 12 or so hours. I'm happy, but will have to dig into some areas more deeply.

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With appearances on the history channel

Tulane university's all star professor Kenneth Harl brings proformance and passion to educational lectures that will really entertain you.

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Truly a "Great course"

Harl takes you on journey of over a thousand years while keeping you engaged every step of the way.

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Great and educational but moves very fast

It was excellent and informative but the professor seemed to move very quickly and some points that sounded really interesting were soon glossed over. I guess that's what you get when you condense a millennium of history into 12 hours

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