Kenneth R. Bartlett

Bartlett is perhaps a little too fascinated by the inside of churches and by medieval walls, but his tour of 12 European cities will well-preserved medieval parts will have you wanting to visit nearly all of them--or perhaps move to Malta. Bartlett's narrative is well written and he is a good speaker. This is a more recent Teaching Company course, and the gee-whiz computer graphics, such as the professor standing on a map of the city he is talking about, are mostly quite effective. This is show more not a professor standing behind a lectern with a few pictures shown now and then; the depictions of city life are very well integrated and compelling. Definitely recommended. I used this as part of my daughter's home schooling. show less

Superb!! Ken Bartlett is a first rate historian and a great teacher. He provides an in-depth and multi-faceted analysis of the period. I learned a great deal. It was truly a great course!! I now understand why Bill Gates spends a half an hour each day listening to one of the courses in this series.

This is the first Great Courses class I have ever listened to, and it was OK. After having it pounded into my head, I now understand the Guelphs vs the Ghibelines much better. I definitely learned a lot, but good lord there is a lot A LOT of info here. And I learned a lot, which was the goal. I also know I missed a lot because there is just soooo much

I did struggle with the professor's pronunciations. He is Canadian, and I am sure (OK, I know) thas is part of the issue and to others it show more wouldn't even matter. But. BUT. Given that this is audio only, this made it a very frustrating at times.

1. He pronounces "peninsula" as "peninchula". Is this Canadian? I had to take a break around lesson 19 because this was killing me. Needless to say, in a history course about Italy the word "peninsula" comes up fairly often.

2. Less familiar names (of people/title) are all pronounced with the Italian pronunciation. Commendatore, Cesare, etc. But he pronounces "Milan" as "MiLANN" (rhymes with can), which I think of as very midwestern so it must also be Canadian. Even google translate says the English pronunciation is "MilAHN" (very similiar to the Italian), which is what I
expect.

3. Other words are pronounced strictly in an English way. He says Genoese (Gen-oh-EEZ) rather than Gen-oh-VAY-zhay". He usually says "Mil-ahn-EEZ", but at least once he says "Mi-lahn-AY-zhay". show less