Know thy enemy. That's what the wisdom of history teaches us. And Adolf Hitler was surely the greatest enemy ever faced by modern civilization. Over half a century later, the horror, fascination, and questions still linger: How could a man like Hitler and a movement like Nazism come to power in 20th-century Germany - an industrially developed country with a highly educated population? How were the Nazis able to establish the foundations of a totalitarian...

Jazz is a uniquely American art form, one of America's great contributions to not only musical culture, but world culture, with each generation of musicians applying new levels of creativity that take the music in unexpected directions that defy definition, category, and stagnation. Now you can learn the basics and history of this intoxicating genre in an eight-lecture series that is as free-flowing and original as the art form itself. You'll follow...

To truly understand the United States of America, you must explore its literary tradition. Now, in this grand collection of 84 fascinating lectures, you'll get the chance to finally become familiar with America's true literary masterpieces (some you may already be familiar with, others you have yet to discover). Professor Weinstein has crafted these lectures to explain why some works become classics while others do not, why some "immortal" works fade...

To watch any opera lover listen to a favorite work, eyes clenched tight in concentration and passion, often betraying a tear, is to be almost envious. What must it be like, you might think, to love a piece of music so much? And now one of music's most gifted teachers is offering you the opportunity to answer that very question, in a spellbinding series of 32 lectures that will introduce you to the transcendentally beautiful performing art that has...

Lectures on Greek history from the late Bronze Age to the time of Alexander the Great, concentrating on the period from 600 to 400 B.C.

Three lifetimes ago, Europe was a farming society ruled by families of monarchs. Modern European history began with two seismic tremors that shattered Europe's foundations: the Industrial Revolution in England introduced modern industrial capitalism, while the French Revolution of 1789-1799 threatened entrenched elites throughout Europe. For the next three generations, consider the following events that occurred in the span of one lifetime: (1) Napoleon's...

Provides understanding of musical forms, techniques, and terms and of the reciprocal relationship of social context and musical creation, using digitally recorded music to illustrate points and examining the contributions of nearly every major western composer.

A set of thirty lectures examing the greatest conflict in human history, the Second World War.