Garrett G. Fagan

After laboring to get through this long course, I went to The Great Courses website to try and figure out from the reviews how to pick a better history course for me. What stuck from the reviews was "Kings, battles and dates." And it's so true if you love kings, battles and dates, and are already familiar with, or not need the greater context, Garrett is your man. Should you want a lecturer with more energy and presence, and/or a bit of culture, art, society and context to round out the show more kings, battles and dates then I'd recommend [[Kenneth W. Harl]] and [[Jeremy McInerney]]. show less

The Great Courses are hit or miss, not because of the quality of the information, but because of the listenability of the professors involved. I thought THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT ROME was loaded with interesting information, but the professor seemed constantly pressed for time. Constant repetition of phrases like "we don't have time to go into that" or "that's a topic for another course" became monotonous.

This is a decent overview of Ancient Rome, particularly those interested in the military show more history of the civilization. Topics were skated over quickly, but if something interested me I could note it and dig deeper on my own. For the most part, the materials in chronological order, but there were a few lectures at the end where he went into broad overviews of a handful of culturally significant aspects of roman life. Each of these were in a single lecture - women, the Coliseum, Paganism, Christianity - before returning to the last handful of emperors.

All in all, this hasn't been my favorite. I could listen to the individual lectures, but nothing inspired me. And I'm deeply interested in ancient Rome, so I don't think it was the subject matter so much as it was the dismissive delivery. Definitely not my favorite. show less

Excellent detail about ancient warfare and an astonishing level of expertise on the subject. Fagan also spoke eloquently about the nature of war and to some degree the political uses of it. Very well spoken and an excellent lecturist.

“The Great Book Swap” I enjoyed the message of this book more then the book itself. For the message of this book is that you can recycle all things. This is shown throughout the writing style of writing in that the author uses dialogue in order to get the story across. For the student ask the teacher to do a book swap. I believe this keeps the reader engaged because even though it is written in story form it all allows the reader to feel as if they are just reading a conversation opposed show more to a book. I also like the illustrations within this book because it helps to convey the message. Many of the illustrations within this book are done in way that it still looks like realistic artwork. This kept me engaged because it allowed it to be more relatable and interested. show less