The great courses pdf download free

The chapters covered here include a brief biographical sketch of Attila the Hun and his leadership qualities, the sack of Rome by the Vandals, an interesting note on the last Roman Emperor, a look at Gibbon's distaste for Monastic isolation, and much more. This is a great taste of the sheer breadth of Professor Damrosch's genius as a literary scholar, and his ability to weave commentary on Gibbon's life in with an expert analysis of the historical period covered.

The Origins of Agriculture in Human History. Benjamin, Ph. How did human beings make the leap from nomadic communities dedicated to foraging over to village-based civilizations built around agriculture? Benjamin outlines the current academic thinking on the factors that led to this major transition in human history, which took place over 11, years ago. These circumstances include post ice age climate change, which created stable environmental factors in areas like the fertile crescent, animal and plant domestication breakthroughs, and demographic pressures that made it more sensible to stay and develop a single piece of land.

With the advent of agriculture, Professor Benjamin notes that human beings were suddenly set on a new historical trajectory; a pathway that made civilization as we know it possible. The Apocrypha and the Cult of Mary. Mary has been a controversial figure throughout Christian history, with some viewing her as a semi-divine figure of veneration, and others decrying the idea of placing her on such a high pedestal, despite being the mother of Jesus.

In this free Great Courses lecture, Professor David Brakke dives into the Gospel's account of Mary before exploring how different apocryphal stories expand upon her biography, including emphasis on her virginal purity, her special access to Jesus, and differing accounts of her death. As Brakke moves through these stories, he teases out how the figure of Mary may reveal tensions in the early Church that were gradually smoothed over as mainstream Christian doctrine took shape.

The Detective in Mystery and Suspense Fiction. The detective is the central figure of the mystery and suspense genre. As Professor David Schmid says in this free Great Courses Plus lecture, where crime disrupts, the detective restores order; if crime is an illness, the detective is the doctor. August Dupin, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot as examples of how the core traits of the detective were established, and how their comparative differences helped the character type evolve.

As Professor Schmid puts it, readers still love detectives because of how they make sense of an often irrational world, and this lecture is a great entry-point for anyone curious about the origins of these beloved creations. Professor Hans-Friederich Mueller hosts a full lecture devoted to the entire Greek alphabet in this free lecture provided by The Great Courses.

Here Mueller will guide you through each letter, before progressing to basic words, the tricky pronunciations that crop up, and the complex sentences that come out as a final result.

As you follow along, you are encouraged to verbally repeat these Greek grammar basics, helping you retain and eventually enjoy an important language used by Homer, Shakespeare, and The Bible. Visualizing Extraordinary Ways to Multiply. Conner, Ph. Tanton talks all about how to visualize multiplication in new, often counter-intuitive ways. From quirky examples like the line method which doesn't look like it should work at all , to how we might rethink the usual algorithms we learn in grade school, Professor Tanton does a great job of breaking up the anxiety we sometimes attach to mathematical problems.

Enthusiastic and excited to share these methods, Tanton closes the lectures with a closed fist method that will get you playing along with him as he makes math easier to understand. Science of Flight: Breaking the Sound Barrier. Gregory, Ph. What made the sound barrier such a difficult challenge for early flight pioneers, and why did it represent such a fundamental breakthrough for the future of aviation?

In this lecture delivered by Professor James W. Gregory, we take an inside look at the basic scientific problems surrounding supersonic flight that had to be solved, including wing design, high-speed air pressure dynamics, and the mechanical dangers that made many in the scientific community conclude it simply wasn't possible to fly faster than sound. Gregory provides helpful animations and archive footage to illustrate how test pilot Chuck Yeager finally broke the barrier in , ushering in the jet age that we still benefit from, and even take for granted today.

For this free Great Courses lecture, horticulturist Melinda Myers walks you through the broad steps needed to transform your backyard into a beautiful garden you can enjoy and use for years to come. Using a large property as her test garden, Myers talks about "The 4 Rs" everyone should remember before redesigning their space: the Right Plant, the Right Purpose, the Right Place, and the Right Look.

From there, Myers talks about how to evaluate what you have, what you might need to do to prepare your land, and what flora and fauna might be best for you given the realities of climate, plant hardiness, and what's important to you aesthetically.

Wonderful for those that are itching to work with their green thumb but don't know where to start! Why do we whisper when we enter a cathedral? Kehoe examines this and many other social situations and how our learned cultural experiences pass on the values and norms of our communication. He also provides some insights into how cultures are different when it comes to their methods of communication citing a study of students from Southern U. This is a compelling lecture that will get you thinking about how your own culture has shaped your communication.

Introduction to World Economic History. Harreld, Ph. Harreld starts out by describing his own interest in economic history. He then lays out many of the terms that will be examined in various stages of the history he will be teaching in the course including production, demand, distribution, business contracts, markets, trade, and even a complex definition of capitalism itself.

He also briefly describes some of the schools of economics that will be studied during the course such as neoclassical economics and Marxian economics. Learning How to Practice the Guitar. He tells a story about the importance of practice and then goes on to teach how to hold the guitar and how to play some simple notes, chords, and scales. Along the way you'll see helpful diagrams to show you how to play each of these elements.

Roots of Irish Identity: Celts to Monks. The Great Courses have added over 50 free lectures from their latest courses to their YouTube channel. One of the lectures they added comes just in time for St. Patrick's Day. In the lecture Professor Conner introduces the course by tracing Irish identity back to the Celts as he details their mythology.

He also provides the background of Saint Patrick and of the monks who "saved civilization" by writing out much of the knowledge of Greek and Roman literature after the collapse of the Roman Empire. You'll probably want to watch this lecture as it contains some beautiful imagery of Ireland and aspects of Irish civilization.

Get in the Irish spirit with this free lecture from The Great Courses. For people of a certain generation, the John F.

Kennedy assassination changed America forever, prefiguring a loss of innocence that has lasted into the modern era. In the end, Fears believes that JFK's death changed history for the worse, and in this lecture he makes a compelling case for what might have been. Facets of Major World Religions. He provides examples as to how many world religions have these features which provide the groundwork for how he will examine the major world religions in the rest of the course.

Berkson effectively communicates these facets of religion to begin a very informative course that will cover the basics of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and a few other religious traditions. Mind Bending Math: Voting Paradoxes. Learn about the complex mathematical scenarios behind many of the most popular voting methods in the United States and around the World.

Professor David Kung, Ph. He examines the plurality systems and the popular vote, the Electoral College, runoff voting, majoritarian voting, and other systems. Look at examples of candidates winning such as Jesse Ventura's historic gubernatorial victory in Minnesota where he only would've likely won with a popular voting system and he did.

The lecture will surely get you thinking about what voting system is best. He then gives viewers a brief introduction as to what Tai Chi is and how it started, coming out of the Taoist tradition.

He then demonstrates the Yang-style movement form that he will be teaching throughout the course. You'll definitely want to watch this lecture, rather than just listen to it, as it's mostly an intro to Tai Chi through its physical display. Basic Structure of the Atom. Davis Jr. In this lecture Professor Davis gives a history of discoveries about the atom from protons to electrons to neutrons.

He concludes the lecture with how atomic mass is calculated and examines the atoms of some of the most well known elements including hydrogen, carbon, and uranium. You'll also learn a little about isotopes, anions, and cations.

The Story of Ancient Olympia. Go back to the days of the ancient Greek Olympics in this free lecture from the Great Courses series.

This free lecture is available from The Great Courses through their new YouTube channel which also features course trailers, lecture samples, and more. The Power of a Mathematical Picture. Must-Know Tactical Patterns in Chess. Three-Dimensional Geometry: Solids. Medieval Muslim Medicine and Hospitals. Anthropology and the Question of Race. Plant Science: An Introduction to Flowers.

Posted by LearnOutLoud Permalink. Follow Us On. Search Go Advanced Search. Subscribe to Our Blog. Why America Wrote the Declaration of Independence To commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence years ago on July 4, , we're featuring this free lecture from The Great Courses.

The Role Women Played in the American Revolution In many ways the late 18th century American revolutionary period remains a somewhat ambiguous moment for the role of women. Each audiobook comes with the full text of the book in English which can be translated into other languages. A new audio story is published every week. You can also browse through the latest additions and put a hold on a title you want to check out.

If you want current bestsellers in audiobook form, there are several good websites for purchasing or renting them. In addition to audiobooks, Audible also offers radio shows, podcasts, stand-up comedy, and speeches from well known people. You can also use a Kindle Fire. You can get one or two credits a month monthly plans or 12 or 24 credits all at once yearly plans.

With you subscription, you also get a free daily audio subscription to either the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Simply Audiobooks offers three ways to get new releases, bestsellers, classics, and down-to-business titles in audiobooks, available in MP3 or M4B format.

One method is to join their Download Club, which is a subscription plan that gives you credits you can redeem for more than 9, audiobooks on their site. You pay a flat subscription rate and you can download most audiobooks for one credit each. A small number of titles require two credits to download. You can also choose their Rental Program, which allows you to listen to as many audiobooks on CDs as you can each month.

Add titles to your shelf, and when you finish one and return it, the next title on your shelf is shipped to you. You can choose rental plans that allow you to have from one to four books at a time for a flat monthly fee.

Shipping is free both ways. Depending on how fast you go through audiobooks, you can pay a lot less per audiobook than the cost of buying it. NOTE: Not all books are available for all three options. For each audiobook listed in their catalog, they indicate whether it is available for Rent, through the Club, or to Buy.

AudioGO formerly known as BBC Audiobooks America offers complete and unabridged audiobooks, both single-voiced one person reading the book and full-cast dramatized a cast of readers acting out the story , and radio dramas.

The Audio Book Store offers a large collection of audiobooks, available in downloadable, streaming, and CD formats. If you want audiobooks to be shipped to you on CD, you can choose their rental program, which is similar to the Rental Program at Simply Audiobooks. The streaming service is a monthly plan that allows you unlimited access to the entire audiobook library and you can stream an unlimited number of audiobooks per month to your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.

One advantage to the streaming service is that you can listen to your audiobooks across multiple devices. For example, you can start listening to a book on your phone, continue listening to it on your laptop, and then go back to listening to it on your phone again.

Just Audiobooks offers over , bestselling audiobooks from the most popular authors, and is very similar to the Audio Book Store. Just Audiobooks has also partnered with Audible to provide their download service. If you prefer to buy audiobooks on CD to have permanently, you can purchase audiobooks on CD.

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