Reviews

Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations by Kenneth W. Harl

mbates185's review against another edition

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informative fast-paced

3.5

ecorry7's review against another edition

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4.0

Interesting exploratory information. After learning so much about ancient Egypt in a different great course, I enjoyed learning about Babylon and Persia as bookmarks.

ehays84's review against another edition

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5.0

An excellent concise history of the ancient civilization of the near east and the regions near that. I will keep returning to this when I need a refresher on Ancient History to help my AP World History students.

Kenneth Harl is really just excellent. This is now the third lecture series by him that I have listened to/read, and his style is very conducive to learning a a lot and being interested all at the same time. He has a unique background to do this because he has been a teacher for very long, is continuously researching primary sources, and he is an archaeologist. He has the tools you need to teach ancient through medieval history, which is truly impressive. If I were to go on history-jeopardy sort of show, he would be my lifeline.

I highly recommend these to anyone.

lucifer_the_cat's review against another edition

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adventurous informative fast-paced

3.0

jmckendry's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

Another amazing set of lectures from Great Courses! One of the coolest things I learned was that the discovery of pottery in civilizations often immediately preceded smelting, and creating metals like bronze and gold. This is because the ovens used to bake pottery are able to get to decently high temperatures, and once you have that, extracting metals from ore using immense heat is never far behind.

Of course there were so many other cool things in these lectures, which discussed the rise and fall of Egypt, the Assyrians, the Sumerians, and more. So cool!

girgir81's review

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I was really excited for this one but it was extremely disappointing. The speaker lacks the thought chronology, was very monotonous fumbling through the sentences and presented inaccurate historical facts. I am really surprised how this could be an accomplished professor. 

If you can’t get the name of a region / country historically right to serve your own political agenda, I’m sorry but you’re not a historian nor a credible source I would like to get information from. 

Not recommended unless you plan on wasting 6 hours of your life and come out with no memorable information retained. 

shrimpybear's review against another edition

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4.0

I get whar people are saying but i think it's the format thats tge issue. Professor Harl is the best and shines in his detail, so a 6 hour course that is very broad is not ideal for him to shine. But i still love it and will continue listening to all of his classes bc he is the BEST

bookwormjess's review against another edition

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informative

5.0

sarah_speaks's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

3.5

maryplak's review against another edition

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informative

4.0