The Crusades 101: Holy Knights, Epic Battles, and Sacred Land

Join award-winning historian Christopher Bellitto on this gripping journey through centuries of Greek history. Ancient Greece was one of the most fertile civilizations in history, and its influence on Western philosophy, theology, and civilization is undeniable. Now, you can discover the fascinating legacy of ancient Greece through entertaining and enlightening lectures. With Prof. Bellitto, you will gain a deeper understanding of what made ancient Greece so unique: its polis and democracy, its great battles and personalities, its soaring artistic and literary achievements. You'll also explore dark corners of this civilization, such as its treatment of women and slaves. You will travel from the walls of Troy to the theatres of Athens, from the Delphic oracle to the Spartans' stand at Thermopylae, from Socrates' trial and Alexander the Great's long journeys to the moment where Rome conquered Greece. You'll begin by asking where ancient Greece fits on a broad canvas of world history, geography, and chronology viewed from a wide-angle lens. You will move forward in time, stopping often to explore closely important moments, topics, and themes. You will cover the most essential events in ancient Greece as you travel through millennia of history. Join Prof. Bellitto on this fascinating journey today.

Heralded as one the world's most compelling Church historians, Chris Bellitto transports you into the heart of a strange and wonderful world—the world of medieval Europe. Explore some of the most powerful theological ideas, economic tensions, and political struggles that shaped Western civilization. This series traces western European civilization—with detours to the East—from the transformation of the Roman Empire to a thousand-year medieval period that started slowly before 1000, flowered for 300 years, and then declined sharply with the Black Death and social revolts until Constantinople fell in 1453 and Columbus sailed in 1492. Explore Charlemagne's renaissance, agricultural and commercial revolutions, new types of religious life introduced by spiritual masters from Benedict to Francis, dynastic wars, and courtly literature. You will treasure this course as a timeless resource for understanding the people and events that have shaped faith, art, medicine, literature, and government. Encounter famous historical and literary figures such as Mohammed, Augustine, Richard the Lionhearted, and King Arthur, in their own historical context. You'll understand how the Middle Ages fit within the broader historical timeline of Europe and the rest of the world. This course promises to delight and amaze you.

Who was Alexander the Great? Was he a brilliant, ambitious conqueror or a self-obsessed leader who put his men in harm’s way? A divine figure or a god in his own mind? Join award-winning historian Christopher Bellitto to explore this famously complex figure.. Alexander the Great (ca. 356-323 BCE) was a Macedonian general who brought Greek civilization to the edge of modern-day India. After studying the Iliad, he believed himself to be Achilles reincarnated, imitating the hero of the epic poem in his own military campaigns. Even before he died barely into his thirties, the legends surrounding him were larger than life. In this compelling new audio course, you’ll explore the history and lore surrounding this real man and mythic figure, often by consulting the ancient sources themselves. With Prof. Bellitto, you’ll trace Alexander’s conquests from Macedonia to Asia, assessing his military prowess and leadership skills along the way. You’ll also explore questions about his alleged divinity, his ideas for mixing Greek culture with peoples he overwhelmed, and whether or not he planned to build an empire. Analyzing primary sources as well as context from contemporary historians, you’ll discover wildly different accounts of the same events in Alexander’s life.

A gripping and authoritative 24-lecture history course on the Vietnam War from the award-winning professor who cowrote "Argument without End" with Robert McNamara. Using newly available archival and source material from the United States and Vietnam, Vassar College professor Robert K. Brigham helps you grapple with the legacy of the Vietnam War today. Based on more than 100 trips to Vietnam and extensive interviews with key players from all sides, Prof. Brigham weaves vivid biographical sketches and rich anecdotes into recorded history. His masterful storytelling will help you look behind common assumptions about the conflict.  Not since the Civil War had the American national consciousness been as strained as it was by the conflict in Southeast Asia. Indeed, the controversies that the Vietnam War spurred on the home front are more familiar to many Americans than the policies and motives that guided the conflict. "Vietnam: The Definitive History of the War" fills that gap. The provocative questions Prof. Brigham raises will help you reexamine the war from today's vantage.  Throughout, Prof. Brigham sheds light on the United States and its place in the world today. Under his expert guidance, you will gain fresh understanding of this momentous chapter in American history.

No civilization is so intertwined with the history of Christianity, and the greater Western world, as Rome. Now, you are invited to explore ancient Rome's legacy with award-winning professor and prolific author Christopher M. Bellitto. In this fascinating audio course on the Roman monarchy, republic, and empire, you will explore the essentials of Roman civilization: the creation of a city at the center of world history, its political legacy, its architectural and cultural achievements, its treatment of women and slaves, and its tragic flaws. You will begin by placing ancient Rome in world history by looking at its origins and contexts in terms of geography and chronology. You will then explore the overlooked monarchy that ran for over two centuries until it was replaced by a republic that slowly took over the Mediterranean for 500 years. You will follow Rome as it defeated Carthage in three Punic Wars, facing challengers like Hannibal. As you travel from the Republic to the Empire to Rome's eventual ""fall,"" you will encounter such infamous figures as Julius Caesar, Octavian, Marc Antony, Cleopatra, Caligula, and Nero. You will see how paganism, Judaism, and Christianity interacted, often violently, and how Christianity transformed a stumbling empire. Finally, you will ask whether Rome truly fell at all.

Join one of the Civil War's greatest living historians in exploring this monumental event through the eyes of those who lived it.   Imagine yourself living amid the bloodiest conflict on American soil. An infantry soldier marching into the Gettysburg battlefield in the front lines. A Minnesotan mother whose son responds to Lincoln's call for volunteers. A slave working the fields of a Mississippi plantation when rumors of Emancipation arrive. Drawing on the letters and records of individual soldiers, this compelling audio course invites you to explore the relationship between events on the battlefield and life on the home front. With more than 600,000 casualties, the Civil War cannot be understood by looking exclusively at famous figures like Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant. As you'll see, ordinary people—volunteer soldiers, runaway slaves, civilians in both the North and South—shaped the course of history. Hearing their stories illuminates the causes, consequences, and course of the war.  Your guide is Peter S. Carmichael, Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College and author of "The War for the Common Soldier" (2018). Throughout, you'll pay special attention to the men who served in the ranks on both sides. You'll conclude by looking at the diverse ways that Americans continue to find political relevance in their Civil War past.