Good lecture but this guy clears his throat every sentence. Very disturbing. Probably won’t finish it because once you realize it it’s too disturbing.

So many of our institutions and culture were invented in the Greece of this era. Prof Kagan establishes parallels with current events and recent history that show how relevant this is.

Lecture was good but by God give this man a cough drop

Prof Kagan is so inspiring! We only wish we were one of his students sitting in his classes! Wonderful. To listen and listen again.

Old fashioned lectures are no longer useful as an educational tool. What’s the whole point of being iTunes U, if it’s just a collection of the professor just reading his own "yellow pads notes”? If Yale is keen on this digital project useful for everyone for inexpensive college courses that work for all, then, it should develop more interesting and interactive courses with short concise, and very interesting lectures and visual aids and study materials that come with.

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 current technology.

Kagan obviously knows his subject. However, it would be excellent if the professor could incorporate graphics, e.g., photos of the Greek mainland and islands, archaeological finds, ancient Greek art, into his lectures.

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.

I'm taking one lecture and three seminar courses Prof. Kagan and is one of the best instructors in ancient Greek history in the modern era. A must-listen.

This course tracks the history of the the Greeks through it's epicenter: the Polis. Granted, the course strays a touch in order to allow for a broader picture, which is not a negative point at all. If you're looking to gain some fantastic comprehension of the Ancient Greek world, look no further. What a great class!

yes, we got to hear all about the polis and the hoplites, but this guy has some serious throat clearing going on. It sounds like he's hocking a loogie every three minutes, and it's seriously distracting.

Yes this is more of a Political and Military history of Ancient Greek History. This information is completely invaluable in understanding where and how Western Politics was established, i.e. Democracy.

I picked this series up casually when I got my iPad, but became so engrossed in Kagan's lucid lecture style that I finished all 24 lectures and purchased the textbook and did the assigned readings! It's been 35 years since I was in college, and the experience was unexpected, to say the least! I can't evaluate Kagan's presentation compared to other scholars, but found his knowledge and command of the topic very compelling. My only (minor) criticisms are that it would be beneficial to have graphics, maps, etc. in the lectures (I found myself holding a map of the Greek world in one hand and my iPad in the other) and, second, that Kagan's conservative views on present day politics (yes, he's THAT Kagan) to be a little heavy-handed.

This course is best described as a political or military history of Greece. Poets, philosophers, and artists are mentioned only when they are commenting on politics or history. Aristotle's "Constitution of Athens" is the only time he shows up; Plato's "Republic" --- but no mention of Plato's involvement with the tyranny that briefly took over Athens during his time --- Aristophanes plays enter in solely through a scene involving a disgruntled bumpkin waiting for a meeting of the Athenian Assembly, Euripides is mentioned only for taking refuge in Macedonia. Mind you, the political history is great. You'll want to supplement the lectures with readings from Thucydides and Herodotus since Kagan doesn't cover things they cover well, but Kagan will also inspire you to do so.