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36 Revolutionary Figures of History
Alexander the Great, Jesus, Darwin, and Churchill are just a few of the many politicians, religious leaders, scientists, philosophers, authors, inventors, and generals who transformed our world in ways that still resonate today. Now, with this unique collection of 36 lectures from our extensive course catalog, meet the remarkable people without whom the world would never be the same.
You'll examine the world that was dramatically reformed by a particular individual, or plunge into a defining moment in an individual's life, or learn how an individual went on to influence some of history's other great revolutionaries. Most you'll come away with a thorough understanding of why history is so indebted-for better or, in some instances, for worse-to these 36 epic figures, including Socrates, Queen Victoria, Abraham Lincoln, and Mohandas Gandhi. You'll also encounter figures that you may not have considered to be so revolutionary.
It takes a great professor to help you understand what makes a single person change the world. To that end, we've assembled individual lectures from some of our most highly rated and beloved professors and instructors. Drawn from a range of academic fields (including military history, science, literature, religious studies, and philosophy), each professor lends his or her expert knowledge and teaching skills to making this an authoritative learning experience.
Countless adventures await you with this carefully crafted look at titanic historical figures. If you have a friend who is new to The Great Courses, this collection makes for an accessible and rewarding first step into lifelong learning.
You'll examine the world that was dramatically reformed by a particular individual, or plunge into a defining moment in an individual's life, or learn how an individual went on to influence some of history's other great revolutionaries. Most you'll come away with a thorough understanding of why history is so indebted-for better or, in some instances, for worse-to these 36 epic figures, including Socrates, Queen Victoria, Abraham Lincoln, and Mohandas Gandhi. You'll also encounter figures that you may not have considered to be so revolutionary.
It takes a great professor to help you understand what makes a single person change the world. To that end, we've assembled individual lectures from some of our most highly rated and beloved professors and instructors. Drawn from a range of academic fields (including military history, science, literature, religious studies, and philosophy), each professor lends his or her expert knowledge and teaching skills to making this an authoritative learning experience.
Countless adventures await you with this carefully crafted look at titanic historical figures. If you have a friend who is new to The Great Courses, this collection makes for an accessible and rewarding first step into lifelong learning.
19 pages, Audible Audio
First published August 22, 2014
5 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Allen C. Guelzo
56 books275 followersAllen Carl Guelzo (born 1953) is the Henry R. Luce III Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College, where he serves as Director of the Civil War Era Studies Program.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 1, 2025
I usually thoroughly enjoy the Great Lecture series; they are a wonderful background soundtrack when cooking or doing other chores, and I have genuinely been led to do further research on multiple subjects that I never would have thought I'd pursue.
I had hoped 36 Revolutionary Figures of History would have a similar impact on me, but I finished this series merely annoyed. It is a blatant attempt by the Great Lectures to advertise their actual lectures. Each "Revolutionary Figure" is presented by a different expert, and lo and behold those one off lectures are each a part of an entire lecture series presented by the lecturer about a much broader topic.
I had already heard a fair number of those lectures, and the experience with those was far better in the context of the wider topic.
Moreover, the fact that each lecture in 36 Revolutionary Figures of History comes from different people talking about different things means that their is no consistency in how these "Revolutionary Figures" are presented. Some are presented in strange fluff pieces, some are only mentioned tangentially in connection to some event, some are pure propaganda, many aren't presented as revolutionary at all, and these things must happen when all context is removed.
I came away with no new interests, no areas I wanted to study further, only annoyance that I had wasted my time. Huge bummer.
I had hoped 36 Revolutionary Figures of History would have a similar impact on me, but I finished this series merely annoyed. It is a blatant attempt by the Great Lectures to advertise their actual lectures. Each "Revolutionary Figure" is presented by a different expert, and lo and behold those one off lectures are each a part of an entire lecture series presented by the lecturer about a much broader topic.
I had already heard a fair number of those lectures, and the experience with those was far better in the context of the wider topic.
Moreover, the fact that each lecture in 36 Revolutionary Figures of History comes from different people talking about different things means that their is no consistency in how these "Revolutionary Figures" are presented. Some are presented in strange fluff pieces, some are only mentioned tangentially in connection to some event, some are pure propaganda, many aren't presented as revolutionary at all, and these things must happen when all context is removed.
I came away with no new interests, no areas I wanted to study further, only annoyance that I had wasted my time. Huge bummer.
May 11, 2019
This is most definitely the greatest of the Great Courses! Instead of being one giant course on a single subject it is 36 lectures, each focusing on different men and women that have changed the world and the way we think about it. Each of the 36 lectures has been been pulled from other Great Courses, and is taught by a different lecturer who is an expert on the subject. There is a brief introduction about the lecturer, which also lets you know the name of the Great Course that each lecture comes from. The format makes this one of the most (if not the most) wide ranging and interesting of all the Great Courses that I’ve encountered.
Each of the 36 lectures of this course shines a spotlight on a different “Revolutionary Figure” from world history. While each lecture is structured slightly different due to the person giving, they are all a combination of a biography of the individual, an overview of what made them significant (ie. conquests, teachings, writings, theories, inventions), and their lasting effect on the world around them. The individuals that are profiled vary greatly, with some hailing from leadership/politics to arts/philosophy. The only common thread is that each of the figures has a proud effect on the world around them. While some lectures are better than others, they are all quite good and definitely informative.
The only downside of the course itself is that, despite having 36 lectures, it almost seems a little short in that there are probably a few extra revolutionary figures that could be included such as Nikola Tesla, Henry Ford, Martin Luther King Jr or Steve Jobs. Still, this is was one of the most interesting and engaging of the Great Courses that left me wanting to learn more by following up with the course that the lecture is taken from.
One thing that is disappointing is that it is hard to find a list of the people covered in each lecture. For those that would like to know this information beforehand here it is: 1) King Narmer 2) Confucius 3) Socrates 4) Hippocrates 5) Artaxerxes II 6) Alexander the Great 7) Virgil 8) Julius Caesar 9) Augustus Caesar 10) Jesus 11) Constantine 12) Muhammad 13) William the Conqueror 14) Thomas Aquinas 15) Geoffrey Chaucer 16) Martin Luther 17) Copernicus 18) Galileo 19) Roger Williams 20) Isaac Newton 21) Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 22) Thomas Paine 23) Samuel Slater 24) Immanuel Kant 25) Napoleon 26) Karl Marx 27) Charles Darwin 28) Harriett Beecher Stowe 29) Abraham Lincoln 30) Queen Victoria 31) Albert Einstein 32) Adolf Hitler 33) Winston Churchill 34) Gandhi 35) Mao 36) Margaret Thatcher
Each of the 36 lectures of this course shines a spotlight on a different “Revolutionary Figure” from world history. While each lecture is structured slightly different due to the person giving, they are all a combination of a biography of the individual, an overview of what made them significant (ie. conquests, teachings, writings, theories, inventions), and their lasting effect on the world around them. The individuals that are profiled vary greatly, with some hailing from leadership/politics to arts/philosophy. The only common thread is that each of the figures has a proud effect on the world around them. While some lectures are better than others, they are all quite good and definitely informative.
The only downside of the course itself is that, despite having 36 lectures, it almost seems a little short in that there are probably a few extra revolutionary figures that could be included such as Nikola Tesla, Henry Ford, Martin Luther King Jr or Steve Jobs. Still, this is was one of the most interesting and engaging of the Great Courses that left me wanting to learn more by following up with the course that the lecture is taken from.
One thing that is disappointing is that it is hard to find a list of the people covered in each lecture. For those that would like to know this information beforehand here it is: 1) King Narmer 2) Confucius 3) Socrates 4) Hippocrates 5) Artaxerxes II 6) Alexander the Great 7) Virgil 8) Julius Caesar 9) Augustus Caesar 10) Jesus 11) Constantine 12) Muhammad 13) William the Conqueror 14) Thomas Aquinas 15) Geoffrey Chaucer 16) Martin Luther 17) Copernicus 18) Galileo 19) Roger Williams 20) Isaac Newton 21) Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 22) Thomas Paine 23) Samuel Slater 24) Immanuel Kant 25) Napoleon 26) Karl Marx 27) Charles Darwin 28) Harriett Beecher Stowe 29) Abraham Lincoln 30) Queen Victoria 31) Albert Einstein 32) Adolf Hitler 33) Winston Churchill 34) Gandhi 35) Mao 36) Margaret Thatcher
November 16, 2021
This is one of those Great Courses compilations that borrows a lecture here and there from many of their books and throws them all into one volume in a way that both informs and advertises their many books. The result is 36 short bios of people who have made a major impact in the world which is worth reading even if you think you know a lot about the historical figures. For example, just about everyone has heard of Jesus Christ and knows something about him, but I had never thought about him specifically in terms of how revolutionary his idea of the Kingdom of God was.
The big drawback to this collection is that the chapter titles in the audiobook form do not mention the subject of each chapter. This greatly reduces the utility of the book for rereading. This is not the sort of volume that I think most people will want to listen to all the way through a second time. But it is the sort of volume where you might want to refresh your understanding of specific historical figures and the lack of a subject with each chapter title makes it difficult to find the person you’re interested in.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
The big drawback to this collection is that the chapter titles in the audiobook form do not mention the subject of each chapter. This greatly reduces the utility of the book for rereading. This is not the sort of volume that I think most people will want to listen to all the way through a second time. But it is the sort of volume where you might want to refresh your understanding of specific historical figures and the lack of a subject with each chapter title makes it difficult to find the person you’re interested in.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
January 30, 2022
This lecture series consists of lectures pulled from other series. I can understand why Great Courses did this. For starters, the development costs would primarily consist of the time required to review other lecture series for appropriate lectures. Secondly, each lecture is a preview of a different lecture series and may prompt the listeners to check out other lecture series. In other words, free advertising. It also benefits the listeners by helping them to identify subjects of interest. On the other hand, because the lectures are drawn from other series, the speakers frequently refer back to earlier lectures from the original series, which in my opinion detracted from the lectures in this application.
Some of the choices made good sense to me because they represented political change:
• Narmer was the unifier of upper and lower Egypt into a single nation that projected both power and influence into neighboring regions in Africa and the Near East.
• Alexander the Great spread Greek language and culture throughout the Near East.
• Caesar set the stage for the transformation of Rome from a republic to an empire. That said, the lecture about him focused on his conquest of Gaul, probably because it enabled his subsequent success.
• Following in Caesar’s footsteps, Augustus turned Rome into an empire.
• In making Christianity a licit religion, Constantine the Great set the stage for Christianity to dominate Europe and, until the rise of Islam, North Africa and the Middle East.
• In replacing Anglo-Saxon rule with Norman-French rule in England, William the Conqueror essentially joined England to the continent, with English kings having holdings both in England and in France, at least until the Hundred Years War three centuries later.
• Napoleon completely upended Europe. While the 1815 Congress of Vienna made a good-faith attempt to restore things to the way they were before the French Revolution, Europe would not be the same. I have to wonder if Prussia’s participation in defeating Napoleon set the stage for the unification of Germany.
• Abraham Lincoln oversaw a war to preserve the union and ultimately transformed it into a war to eliminate slavery.
• Under Queen Victoria, Great Britain built up its second empire, replacing the one lost to the American Revolution.
• By igniting a global conflagration, Adolf Hitler set the stage for a new world order that would last for the next half century, albeit one quite different from what he had envisioned.
• Standing firm against Hitler’s aggression, Winston Churchill kept alive the hope of victory against Hitler’s Germany.
• Mao Zedong imposed communism and the cultural revolution on China. As it turns out, he was a rather complex individual. His exposure to oppression as a young man inspired his turn to activism. He had seen individuals suffer and wanted to alleviate that suffering. However, as an activist, he stopped seeing people as individuals and started seeing them as a class. Furthermore, he hardened his heart such that he couldn’t be moved by the suffering he imposed on entire classes of people. Put another way, his desire to make an omelet to help eggs required him to break eggs.
• In privatizing industries that had been controlled by the government since World War II, Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain’s economy, making it more competitive.
Other choices represented religious, ideological and cultural considerations:
• Jesus changed the world as His followers applied his teaching. To this day, Christianity is one of the largest religions in the world. The lecturer’s take on the parables stood out to me for its uniqueness. For example, I normally think of the parable of the mustard seed as pointing to the growth of the kingdom of heaven from a handful of disciples to a major world religion to its consummated form after Jesus’ second coming. The lecturer pointed out that the mustard plant was a weed. Why would anyone want it in his garden. In highlighting the mustard seed, Jesus was upending conventional wisdom.
• In establishing Islam, Muhammad founded a major world religion to rival Christianity.
• Thomas Aquinas injected Aristotelian philosophy into Christian thought.
• With his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer exerted an influence over the development of the English language.
• Martin Luther triggered the Reformation, which split western Christendom into Protestant and Catholic branches.
• • Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a heliocentric challenge to Ptolemaic geocentrism. Further work by others, such as Johanne Kepler, was required to develop it into the form we know today.
• Galileo, more like an engineer than a scientist, pioneered experimental physics. He is better known today for his collision with the Catholic church. Much of that “common knowledge” is a bad caricature of what actually happened. To his credit, when the lecturer discussed this, he delved into the complexities of the situation, including historical background and Galileo’s own ballistic podiatry, shooting himself in the foot.
• Roger Williams laid the foundation for religious tolerance in the American colonies.
• Isaac Newton laid the foundation for modern classical physics, providing the theoretical basis for empirical astronomical observations, etc., with his laws of motion and gravity. Interestingly enough, fluids whose viscosity is independent of the shear rate are known as Newtonian fluids. Given that fluid flow is part of my engineering specialty, I get a regular reminder of Newton’s contribution to science.
• Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’s pioneering use of microscopes opened our eyes to the world of the microbe.
• Thomas Paine’s Common Sense popularized the ideals on which the American Revolution were based, helping to turn the thirteen colonies into fertile soil for the idea of independence.
• Samuel Slater brought British textile manufacturing technology to America, paving the way for the industrialization of the North.
• Karl Marx’s ideas built the foundation for 20th century communism. Because I recognize Marx’s outsized impact on history, I agree with the decision to feature him although I was less than enamored with the lecturer. Every implementation of Marx’s ideas has descended into totalitarian dictatorship and has left a trail of death and human suffering. Some idealists fail to recognize that the evil inherent in the human heart ensures that Marx’s endgame is nothing more than a utopia powered by unicorn farts. They think that those who have gone before did it wrong, that it can actually be made to work. I get the impression that this lecturer is one such idealist.
• Charles Darwin wasn’t the first to propose an evolutionary theory of origins; rather, he was the first to propose a mechanism. Biological science hasn’t been the same since.
• By writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe enflamed abolitionary sentiment in the North and contributed to the culture wars that culminated in the American Civil War. This was a truly interesting lecture. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is frequently criticized for its racial stereotypes. The lecturer acknowledges these criticisms but also makes it clear that Stowe was a product of her time and had the prejudices of her day. Personally, I find these criticisms ironic. Flawed individuals worked within their cultural milieu to effect change. Yet years later the current beneficiaries of those efforts dare to criticize them for not living up to the standards of our time, all the while failing to acknowledge or even recognize that without those early efforts, we wouldn’t even be able to have such a discussion.
• While Newton laid the foundations for classical physics, which is good enough for most applications, Albert Einstein used thought experiments to come up with relativity theory, the foundation for modern physics. Interestingly enough, classical physics and modern physics peacefully coexist. Modern physics is more accurate than classical physics but is significantly more computationally demanding. Given that classical physics is sufficiently accurate for most applications, it is still used unless relativity is required to meet the accuracy requirements. I remember doing special relativity calculations in a nuclear physics class in college and can only imagine what it would be like doing general relativity calculations.
As noted above, some of the choices made sense. Others did not. For example, consider Artaxerxes II, whom I didn’t discuss above. He was on the list because he managed to maintain a long, stable reign over the Persian empire during its twilight years, while it was in decline. A wise and judicious leader? Absolutely! But, a revolutionary leader? I think not.
Many of the lectures in this series are very interesting and thought-provoking. At the same time, because they are pulled from other lecture series, the lecturers frequently refer back to earlier lectures from the parent-series, and this detracts from the lecture quality for this context.
Some of the choices made good sense to me because they represented political change:
• Narmer was the unifier of upper and lower Egypt into a single nation that projected both power and influence into neighboring regions in Africa and the Near East.
• Alexander the Great spread Greek language and culture throughout the Near East.
• Caesar set the stage for the transformation of Rome from a republic to an empire. That said, the lecture about him focused on his conquest of Gaul, probably because it enabled his subsequent success.
• Following in Caesar’s footsteps, Augustus turned Rome into an empire.
• In making Christianity a licit religion, Constantine the Great set the stage for Christianity to dominate Europe and, until the rise of Islam, North Africa and the Middle East.
• In replacing Anglo-Saxon rule with Norman-French rule in England, William the Conqueror essentially joined England to the continent, with English kings having holdings both in England and in France, at least until the Hundred Years War three centuries later.
• Napoleon completely upended Europe. While the 1815 Congress of Vienna made a good-faith attempt to restore things to the way they were before the French Revolution, Europe would not be the same. I have to wonder if Prussia’s participation in defeating Napoleon set the stage for the unification of Germany.
• Abraham Lincoln oversaw a war to preserve the union and ultimately transformed it into a war to eliminate slavery.
• Under Queen Victoria, Great Britain built up its second empire, replacing the one lost to the American Revolution.
• By igniting a global conflagration, Adolf Hitler set the stage for a new world order that would last for the next half century, albeit one quite different from what he had envisioned.
• Standing firm against Hitler’s aggression, Winston Churchill kept alive the hope of victory against Hitler’s Germany.
• Mao Zedong imposed communism and the cultural revolution on China. As it turns out, he was a rather complex individual. His exposure to oppression as a young man inspired his turn to activism. He had seen individuals suffer and wanted to alleviate that suffering. However, as an activist, he stopped seeing people as individuals and started seeing them as a class. Furthermore, he hardened his heart such that he couldn’t be moved by the suffering he imposed on entire classes of people. Put another way, his desire to make an omelet to help eggs required him to break eggs.
• In privatizing industries that had been controlled by the government since World War II, Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain’s economy, making it more competitive.
Other choices represented religious, ideological and cultural considerations:
• Jesus changed the world as His followers applied his teaching. To this day, Christianity is one of the largest religions in the world. The lecturer’s take on the parables stood out to me for its uniqueness. For example, I normally think of the parable of the mustard seed as pointing to the growth of the kingdom of heaven from a handful of disciples to a major world religion to its consummated form after Jesus’ second coming. The lecturer pointed out that the mustard plant was a weed. Why would anyone want it in his garden. In highlighting the mustard seed, Jesus was upending conventional wisdom.
• In establishing Islam, Muhammad founded a major world religion to rival Christianity.
• Thomas Aquinas injected Aristotelian philosophy into Christian thought.
• With his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer exerted an influence over the development of the English language.
• Martin Luther triggered the Reformation, which split western Christendom into Protestant and Catholic branches.
• • Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a heliocentric challenge to Ptolemaic geocentrism. Further work by others, such as Johanne Kepler, was required to develop it into the form we know today.
• Galileo, more like an engineer than a scientist, pioneered experimental physics. He is better known today for his collision with the Catholic church. Much of that “common knowledge” is a bad caricature of what actually happened. To his credit, when the lecturer discussed this, he delved into the complexities of the situation, including historical background and Galileo’s own ballistic podiatry, shooting himself in the foot.
• Roger Williams laid the foundation for religious tolerance in the American colonies.
• Isaac Newton laid the foundation for modern classical physics, providing the theoretical basis for empirical astronomical observations, etc., with his laws of motion and gravity. Interestingly enough, fluids whose viscosity is independent of the shear rate are known as Newtonian fluids. Given that fluid flow is part of my engineering specialty, I get a regular reminder of Newton’s contribution to science.
• Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’s pioneering use of microscopes opened our eyes to the world of the microbe.
• Thomas Paine’s Common Sense popularized the ideals on which the American Revolution were based, helping to turn the thirteen colonies into fertile soil for the idea of independence.
• Samuel Slater brought British textile manufacturing technology to America, paving the way for the industrialization of the North.
• Karl Marx’s ideas built the foundation for 20th century communism. Because I recognize Marx’s outsized impact on history, I agree with the decision to feature him although I was less than enamored with the lecturer. Every implementation of Marx’s ideas has descended into totalitarian dictatorship and has left a trail of death and human suffering. Some idealists fail to recognize that the evil inherent in the human heart ensures that Marx’s endgame is nothing more than a utopia powered by unicorn farts. They think that those who have gone before did it wrong, that it can actually be made to work. I get the impression that this lecturer is one such idealist.
• Charles Darwin wasn’t the first to propose an evolutionary theory of origins; rather, he was the first to propose a mechanism. Biological science hasn’t been the same since.
• By writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe enflamed abolitionary sentiment in the North and contributed to the culture wars that culminated in the American Civil War. This was a truly interesting lecture. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is frequently criticized for its racial stereotypes. The lecturer acknowledges these criticisms but also makes it clear that Stowe was a product of her time and had the prejudices of her day. Personally, I find these criticisms ironic. Flawed individuals worked within their cultural milieu to effect change. Yet years later the current beneficiaries of those efforts dare to criticize them for not living up to the standards of our time, all the while failing to acknowledge or even recognize that without those early efforts, we wouldn’t even be able to have such a discussion.
• While Newton laid the foundations for classical physics, which is good enough for most applications, Albert Einstein used thought experiments to come up with relativity theory, the foundation for modern physics. Interestingly enough, classical physics and modern physics peacefully coexist. Modern physics is more accurate than classical physics but is significantly more computationally demanding. Given that classical physics is sufficiently accurate for most applications, it is still used unless relativity is required to meet the accuracy requirements. I remember doing special relativity calculations in a nuclear physics class in college and can only imagine what it would be like doing general relativity calculations.
As noted above, some of the choices made sense. Others did not. For example, consider Artaxerxes II, whom I didn’t discuss above. He was on the list because he managed to maintain a long, stable reign over the Persian empire during its twilight years, while it was in decline. A wise and judicious leader? Absolutely! But, a revolutionary leader? I think not.
Many of the lectures in this series are very interesting and thought-provoking. At the same time, because they are pulled from other lecture series, the lecturers frequently refer back to earlier lectures from the parent-series, and this detracts from the lecture quality for this context.
January 13, 2024
This is a collection of lectures which are each pulled from the middle of an individual Great Course. I had a lot of high hopes for this; thinking it would be a great introduction into a wide range of subjects and time periods.
Unfortunately there isn't effective placing (or editing?) for each chapter that would give an introduction to the time, place, and culture of the person to create context. This leads to a very disconnected feel; sort of like walking into the wrong class mid semester and being expected to follow along.
While I have experienced a few Great courses that I did not personally enjoy, I have never thought of any of them as "bad" before this one. Adding that to say, definitely give ANY others a try :)
Unfortunately there isn't effective placing (or editing?) for each chapter that would give an introduction to the time, place, and culture of the person to create context. This leads to a very disconnected feel; sort of like walking into the wrong class mid semester and being expected to follow along.
While I have experienced a few Great courses that I did not personally enjoy, I have never thought of any of them as "bad" before this one. Adding that to say, definitely give ANY others a try :)
March 14, 2024
Great Courses are a Great Listen! I finally finished this selection today, and overall, I really enjoyed it. I think the biggest letdown was the final lecture, which is about Thatcher. The professor really lionizes her, and I sensed quite a bit of bias. For instance, the goal of left-leaning politics is said to be “to annihilate free enterprise.” Also, huge lolz at the part where the lecturer asserts that conservatives are naturally more “conciliatory.” Ah, yes. That well-earned reputation conservatives have for being super-chill. Sure, dude. Sure.
Other than that, some really great and interesting stories. I mean, Socrates? Confucius? Ghandi? The Buddha? It's fascinating stuff!
Other than that, some really great and interesting stories. I mean, Socrates? Confucius? Ghandi? The Buddha? It's fascinating stuff!
October 8, 2023
I listened to this book, though I think it would be better classified as a group of lectures. I enjoyed the lectures very much as a fan of history, and I learned a lot about many of the subjects. I don't think I would have enjoyed this as a printed volume at all, though I imagine several of the essays could have been edited into very interesting and informative essays. I would recommend this audio book to anyone who enjoys biography or how individual historical figures fit into the larger historical contest.
June 14, 2021
Think of this course as a huge history, "Sample Platter" as it were! It goes thru history using the vast Teaching Company catalog to pick out various lectures from said catalog to highlight these 36 people who did in there own way change the world. One of the best features about this course was the ability to skip lessons that held no interest to me. Without feeling I was forgoing parts of the larger story! Highly recommended if you love history but don't know where to begin!
March 22, 2020
I had been listening to these courses during my cooking time for 3 months. It's very enjoyable and informative. So grateful that we could listen to great courses by great professors all around the world these days.
April 27, 2022
Very good list of extraordinary people through history with a variety of types. They only negative is the lectures were pulled from existing lectures so not all gave a good review of the person but created interest to study more in depth.
March 31, 2025
Compilation from each revolutionary figures own lecture series and seemingly only a random lesson from each. No more compilations from Great Courses for me - Only full topic courses. Love The Great Courses - Just not crazy about this one.
January 5, 2026
Excellent, high level over views of their people covered in the book really enjoyed learning this mattering about each person who expanded my knowledge of who they were and treasured a desire for deeper knowledge and doing a deep dive on certain characters in the book. Worth the read.
March 12, 2019
So informative!!!
September 17, 2020
Great book. Great lectures.
May 23, 2023
The subjects are interesting, but there is them problem. 36 figures from history is too many to give proper treatment to any.
April 8, 2024
The clip show of the Great Courses. Good for someone who doesn't really want to learn much but who wants to tell people they're well read.
June 2, 2024
This is a compilation of 36 lectures explaining world history through its most revolutionary figures.
June 1, 2022
A decent compilation of single lectures pulled from other courses - some which stand more, some less well alone. Most of these were quite interesting, though I admittedly skipped a few lectures... mostly because I had already listened to the course it was from or was planning to do so in the future, or, in the case of the very first of these lectures, because the lecturer just annoyed the hell out of me.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews