J. Rufus Fears (1945–2012)

Ugh. Two stars is a generous review for this one.

This professor is so condescending and pompous, and the myths shared in this lecture series are all very traditional. We do seven lectures on Troy, and NOT ONE Indigenous or Native myth? No thank you. I've listened to other much more inclusive lecture series from The Great Courses on mythology.

Add to this that the author kept mis-naming the Native tribes and spent time at the end really feeding into white colonial entitlement. And that's the show more content. I didn't see any "life lessons" in these myths. A couple times, he referenced the way myth aligns with historical fact, but mostly, he just retold Greek myths, American folklore, and Roman and Medieval history from his perspective. There was a lecture about Gilgamesh at the beginning, but it felt very much included from a perspective of "well you can't skip Gilgamesh, it's the oldest known myth" perspective and not real interest.

So this lecture series is a hard pass from me. The concept as told in the title of the lecture series is interesting, but I despised the professor and the biased content and I don't recommend this at all. show less

Fears' lecture series is superb. I enjoyed every moment of it and still find myself contemplating some of the questions he raises. What I like most about his approach is that he takes a consistent position in the form of a framework that teaches his audience to extend to other scenarios. For example, he often prompts thoughts about what makes a statesman distinct from a politician. The issue is complex, because even dictators we oppose can still be statesmen, even while the ends toward which show more they work are so opposed to our own interests. Fears has helped me know more about Alexander, Augustus, Jefferson, and Washington. He's also made me think differently about Lincoln, Napoleon, Stalin, and Mao. show less

Professor Rufus Fears of the University of Oklahoma bases the idea for his course Famous Greeks on Plutarch's Lives which he describes as a "repository of wisdom of virtues to be emulated and vices to be avoided." He adds the biographies of several seminal characters from Homer to a long line of politicians, playwrights, and philosophers.

Dr. Fears is a charismatic storyteller, a bit of a ham, and a very entertaining lecturer. He does an excellent job retelling stories of heroes and legendary show more battles. However, I noticed some glaring omissions and slanted accounts in his retellings of the lives of historical figures.

For example, in his lecture on Lycurgus and the evolution of Spartan society, Fears only mentions slavery once when he states that young Spartan men had to find and kill a slave as part of an initiation rite of Spartan manhood; a custom he describes as "unfortunate." ( I checked Plutarch, and he discusses the cruelty of Spartan slavery in the original text.) Again, in his biography of Alexander the Great, he ignores the historiographical research and paints a picture of the mythical Alexander as a demi-god.

While the Ancient Greek world is an interest of mine, I am hardly an expert. So if I can pick up on these simplifications and omissions, I assume that there are others more knowledgeable individuals would detect. Nevertheless, despite these flaws, I would recommend the course if one maintains a critical ear or listens in conjunction with the more nuanced analytical lectures of Jeremy McInerney in the Great Courses series. show less

While I did really enjoy this course, I can't say that I loved it as much as I did "The World Was Never the Same: Events that Changed History." In my opinion, Dr. Fears has a glaring blind spot when comes to FDR. I feel like if you are going to discuss FDR and his successes, you can't overlook the fact that he interred over 100,000 Americans based solely on their ethnicity. If you have to take them warts and all. I do miss being his student, but I can acknowledge that he had some weak points show more as a professor (as all professors do). show less