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Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor

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Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor

By: Kenneth W. Harl, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Kenneth W. Harl
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About this listen

Embark on an unforgettable trip into the historical glories of the past with these 24 lectures that immerse you in the history of an often overlooked region of the ancient world.

With Professor Harl as your guide, you'll plunge into the history of Asia Minor's great ancient civilizations and come face to face with eye-opening historical milestones. Among these: the rise of the Hittites, the legendary Trojan War, the birth of Western philosophy, the fiery Greek and Persian Wars, the victories of Alexander the Great, the dawn of the Hellenistic Age, the spread of early Christianity, the golden age of Byzantium, the birth of the Ottoman Empire, and much more.

Cultural change and continuity are the main themes of these lectures. You'll come to see how each successive civilization inherited and modified the political, social, religious, and economic institutions of its predecessor. In fact, the scope of Anatolian history can be best understood as a series of major cultural and religious rewrites: first by the Hittite emperors; then by the elites of Hellenic cities; next by their Hellenized descendants in the Roman age; then by Christian emperors and bishops in the Byzantine age; and, finally, by Turkish rulers and Muslim mystics.

To give you a stronger sense of that continuity (and the various changes that are a part of it), these lectures are organized into five cultural components: Early Anatolia (from 6000 to 500 B.C.), Hellenized Anatolia (from 750 to 31 B.C.), Roman Asia Minor (from 200 B.C. to 395 A.D.), Byzantium (from 395 to 1453), and Islamic Turkey (since 1071).

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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The history of Anatolia is a topic of great interest; indeed, hardly any region of the world has seen greater changes over the last few thousand years.

Compressing all that into 24 lectures can only ever scratch the surface. The course is misnamed in referring to 'Ancient Civilisations'. 'Ancient' might arguably end with The Bronze Age, but in my book it would pretty much end with the Hellenistic period, or the Roman at a stretch. It certainly wouldn't include later Byzantium, the Holy Roman Empire, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders or the Ottomans, all courses in their own right. A 36 or 48 lecture course that kept to the earlier periods would be far more rewarding.

The combination of a shallow survery and Prof Harl's rather dreary presentation meant that I didn't really engage with this course.

Should have kept to its title

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I learned a great deal of history by listening to these informative but short lectures.

Enjoyable

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came across this audiobook when I was looking for info on the Hittite Folk, who lived in Asia Minor a long long time ago. The author starts with this period and chronologically explores the comings and goings of this area, now known as Turkey 🇹🇷.

Utterly fascinating, I learned so much.

Recommended 5*

Very interesting

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These are great lectures, but told awfully quickly and tersely. Some people may find, like me that its hard to maintain attention and your mind wanders off. BTW lecturer sound like Agent Smart in TV series, Get Smart.

A bit condensed

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