John Pinkerton

Excellent, well balanced biography

Reviewed: 05-18-24

Just strong all around. Covers Augustus' life in considerable more depth than you'd get in more general books/courses, and it's clear that the author was careful about sources, often noting disagreements or limitations in surviving texts. He does not gloss over Augustus' capacity for cruelty, nor does he assign him the credit of others (notably Agrippa) like even the ancient sources tend to. All in all great book for any history lover.

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Excellent book and wonderful narration by the author

Reviewed: 01-27-24

While I don't think this is quite as good as one of his other works, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, it is still thoroughly enjoyable and I think that Mr. Ansary is wonderfully insightful. His early life in Afghanistan, later life in America, and experience with school history textbooks gives him a unique and refreshing experience that he views the world from. He did repeat what is, to the best of my knowledge, a myth/stretching of the truth regarding Mithraism, it was a minor thing. It's just that if you want to compare the Abrahamic religions to their contemporary other religions, there are plenty of solid examples.

In all, I really appreciated his idea of cultural "constellations" and how they inform tacit understandings of the world; the things that we take utterly for granted. His insights and ideas on how various cultures developed were interesting and I was never bored with this. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in history and culture.

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Really excellent

Reviewed: 07-23-23

I had high hopes for Serkis' narration and was not disappointed. The Hobbit, especially as a precursor to The Lord of the Rings, is a masterpiece of fiction. It has a certain whimsy and ambling nature much different from that trilogy that lets it stand out as its own thing. Andy Serkis delivers everything you want from a narrator; he sounds interested and invested in the story himself, has an upbeat sound, and is a master of voices. My one "compliant" is one that others have noted, that being that he can occasionally go from rather quiet to VERY loud. It's within reason for what's going on, but can do a number on ears with earbuds in. Definitely worth it overall though.

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Very thorough study on Orientalism

Reviewed: 07-16-23

The book is an excellent, thorough, and in my opinion very fair review of the history of orientalism. It's easy to point out the abuses of colonialism and the racist views of individuals. What Said did was write a much more nuanced and scholarly work on the growth of Orientalism as a field, those who contributed to it, and its effects on public perception. The narrator was excellent as well. I think that anyone who can go into this and put aside the impulses and prejudices that we are all encouraged to form by the role of orientalism in the modern west will enjoy the learning experience.

My one major complaint is that, especially early in the book, there are many sometimes very lengthy quotations in French (and I believe at least once in German) that are not translated or explained. I do not speak French, so having a two minute quotation in it is totally lost on me. Perhaps it was explained in a way that I didn't quite catch due to the format, but it's good to know going in.

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Enjoyable and well read

Reviewed: 11-22-22

I generally don't read fiction, but decided to participate in a "book club" among coworkers. I found the story generally compelling, and the reader was very clear and consistent. I saw a lot of reviews complaining about her voice not really matching the character, but that's a bit silly in my opinion and you get used to her very quickly. Needless to say, I haven't read any of the author's other works or much in the genre, but the writing was generally tidy and I don't think they wrote any accidental holes.

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Good general overview

Reviewed: 11-15-22

While not massively detailed on any area, it does what the title implies, at least for Eurasia. If you've already listened to more specialized courses, there won't be anything new, but I think it would be a good starter from which to launch into more specialized courses. Any course acknowledging the ongoing global trade and how events were connected across vast regions even if the people didn't realize it is refreshing in an environment that has typically been extremely Euro-centric.

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2 people found this helpful

Excellent Alternative Perspective

Reviewed: 05-05-22

If you listen to enough history you come to appreciate the different things you'll learn by hearing the same broad stories told from different perspectives. This world history is brilliant and shines a light on the very active and interesting "middle world" throughout history. A worthwhile and engaging listen for anyone, and especially for people passionate about history.

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Good Overview for Further Reading

Reviewed: 01-25-22

Being that 100 different finds are given coverage in this, you'll definitely want to know more about a lot of them than the book provides. However, I thought it was very effective at giving an overview and letting you hear about things you might not otherwise become aware of. Great launching pad for learning more.

My main complaint is the narrator's pronunciation. I'm not entirely positive that what I've heard in the past is correct, but she pronounces some things unlike anyone else I've ever heard. For examples, the general Pompey as "pom-pehy" like the city of Pompeii or Herculaneum with a stress on the final syllable as "knee-um". Minor stuff but it's kind of annoying. But hey, I don't speak any of the languages in question so maybe everyone else is wrong.

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4 people found this helpful

An Easy Entry Course

Reviewed: 03-23-18

This is a great course with the quality that one comes to expect, but will be very remedial if you've listened to other courses on the topic. I would note that the professor is an excellent speaker who does a great job presenting the course, and it DOES develop certain individuals a bit better than some others, but it's certainly not an overall standout. If you're interested in Roman history and want something a little more in-depth, I enormously recommend the two courses presented by Professor Garrett G. Fagan. Those two courses (The History of Ancient Rome and Emperors of Rome) present essentially all of the information detailed here and more, albeit in two courses.

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1 person found this helpful

For the Very Dedicated

Reviewed: 03-13-18

This is an outstanding historical text with the quality of narration that one comes to appreciate from Charlton Griffin after listening to him. The presentation is great and the reading is as engaging as you're going to get from the fairly "dry" text.

I would warn that this book is extremely dense and can be difficult to keep up with without fairly extensive background knowledge. If you are interested in learning more about history and are fairly new to it, I highly recommend the Great Courses titles on the subject, and to come to this after experience with some of the figures and chronology. If you know what you're getting into, Plutarch is a tremendous source of information who presents excellent but a sometimes overwhelming amount of information. I loved this audio book and the chance to listen to the source material for quite a lot of what we know of many figures in the ancient world.

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47 people found this helpful