Entertaining curmudgeon
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“Professor Kagan proves his erudition and the depth of his knowledge consistently in this lecture series. He is known for writing one of the most celebrated histories of the Peloponesian Wars in recent memory. So while I was very excited to listen to his lectures, I became more disappointed with each consecutive lecture.
While his style is very engaging and at times even entertaining, and he seems like a genuinely nice man, his digressions and generalizations about "Western values" become wilder and more prolonged as the series progresses. As someone who read some Greek history in college (Herodotus and Thucydides), I thought I was going to get a refresher on basic timelines and some new insights into Greek thought and life from a recognized leader in the field. Instead, I am constantly hit over the head by the Professor's personal feelings toward the Greeks and his extolling of the uniqueness and magnificence of Greek values and their influence on the modern world today.
At times, he is giving a very overt political view which exceeds his area of specialty, which is Ancient Greek History and (surpise) also happens to be the name of the course. He generalizes about how ancient Greek values and therefore modern Western values can be derived from Homer, but gives insufficient evidence to connect the two (which are separated by several thousand years and dozens of significant intellectual and social movements that he does not mention). As often as I agree with his generalizations, I just as often find him overreaching or proselytizing.
His bemoaning of what he sees as our modern nihilism is amusing, if not charming, at first. However, the persistence with which he continues to batter the viewer (and the poor defenseless student in his course) with this blunt weapon becomes quite tedious, and eventually pitiable. He strikes the skeptical viewer as a man who perhaps has earned the right to some excesses through his achievements, but now in his old age has lost much of the rigor that must have earned him his reputation in the first place.
I sat through the lectures based on his reputation alone, and because of his undeniable mastery of his subject. I just wish he would've stuck to it.”
Guns Germs & Steel via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
04/16/12
More reviews of Ancient Greek History - Video
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“Thank you very much for this great course. I would love to watch HD videos in the future. I know we are all capable of recording and watching HD videos.
A message to all iTunes videos, both commercial and noncommercial: Time to Upgrade the Quality of your videos. The Store is lagging the...”Read full review »
TriggertoFlame via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
10/03/14
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