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The Modern Scholar

Wars That Made the Western World: The Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian War

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The Modern Scholar

By: Timothy Shutt
Narrated by: Timothy Shutt
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This course addresses three wars fought in antiquity, each of which had - even 2,000 years and more later - a decisive effect in shaping our communal sense of who we are, not only in Europe, but throughout the European cultural diaspora, in the Americas, in Oceania, and to some degree, at least, in Asia and Africa as well - wherever, in short, Western values hold.

The three wars to be investigated here are (1) the Persian Wars, between a coalition of Greek city-states or "poleis", most notably Athens and Sparta, and the Achaemenid Persian empire, the central and decisive portion of which took place between 490 and 479 B.C.E.; (2) the later Peloponnesian War between Athens and her allies and Sparta and hers, 431-404 B.C.E.; and finally (3) the three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage, which stretched, on and off, for well more than a century, from 264 to 146 B.C.E.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2004 Timothy Shutt (P)2004 Recorded Books Ancient Military Ancient History Ancient Greece War

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Where does The Modern Scholar rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Medium. The Great Courses presentation of the Peloponnesian War by Kenneth Harl is far more thorough and accurate.

What did you like best about this story?

The connections drawn between the 3 wars

How could the performance have been better?

More detail on the sources as well as the inaccuracies and biases of the sources (e.g.., Thucydides bias as an Athenian)

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

OK, not great, but OK

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Even if you think you know quite a bit about the Greek/Persian wars, the Peloponnesian war and the wars between Rome & Carthage, Prof Shutt provides a lecture with interesting surprises and interpretations of what happened a couple of thousand years ago, how it has been remembered (rightly or wrongly) and how it is relevant to the world of today (surprisingly so).

a good overview of 3 ancient wars

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Proff. Shutt made this era come alive. His lectures were clear, presise and at times, humourous. My previous techers had skipped over these wars, but Timothy Shutt brings home the importance of them to our world today.

The wars that nade the Western World

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Timothy Shutt tells a good story in an expressive manner.

Great subject, great teacher!

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This was an awesome listen, but it’s about the divine comedy. I enjoy mr schutts voice and cadence.

Dante’s comedia

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Timothy Shutt is not only a great scholar, but a great reader. If you are interested at all in ancient Greek, Persian and Roman history through the yes of the wars that were fought and the characters who fought them and those who recorded them, it's a must read.

Wars that made the Western world

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I would probably enjoy any lecture series from Prof. Shutt on a topic he was passionate about - but this is one of his best offerings. I've read a lot on the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, and this is one of the most enjoyable romps through the tales I have ever heard. It would make a wonderful introduction to someone new to the topic!

Prof. Shutt's lectures have the spontaneity of the best college lecturers. Sometimes there are missteps but these are typical of oral performance, and much better than a highly rehearsed reading.

Great Courses has good lectures on these topics by Professors Harl and Hale too.

Excellent audio from Prof. Shutt

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The names Professor Shutt has in mind are Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea and all the other places where the Greeks turned back Persia. Places where primarily Spartan and Athenian forces, fighting against overwhelming odds, ensured that political liberty, the rule of law and free intellectual inquiry were given a chance to flourish and ultimately shape the world in which we live.

This is the best kind of military history, covering organization, commanders, tactics and battles while never losing sight of the cultures that were squaring off or the issues that were at stake. Indeed, Shutt presents those organizations, commanders and tactics as inevitable outcomes of the cultures involved. And he makes it clear that the issues were just as inevitably the result of the differences between those cultures.

Best of all, in presenting the wars that shaped the Western World—the very theme of these lectures must drive the politically correct mad—he never cringes or flinches, as if he were going through someone's dirty laundry basket or cleaning out their refrigerator. Rather, he admires the Greeks and Romans who fought for their way of life and thus shaped and informed our own culture, no matter how hard our leading educational institutions are trying to jettison what those long-dead Greeks and Romans won. As Professor Shutt makes plain in his concluding lecture, the Greco-Roman synthesis forged in these wars was a far more durable, flexible and creative entity than either Greece or Rome could have been on its own.

This is not to say that it’s all glory and cultural self-congratulation. That attitude can lead, as Shutt freely admits, to cultural blindness and for that reason has been, and should be, jettisoned “to a point”. Then he adds, “but only to a point”. Because he understands that the culture that ceases to believe in itself—and ceases to believe itself worth fighting for—is a culture in trouble. As an alternative he offers Leonidas, Themistocles and Scipio Africanus, names which countless generations have used to define what the West is and what the West means, as “touchstones”, as sources of inspiration, for us. Not a bad notion.

There are other refreshing differences between Professor Shutt’s approach and my own school days. In college the Peloponnesian War was taught in terms of Viet Nam—pointless, wasteful, unnecessary. Shutt offers a more astute, illuminating—and less predictable—analyses: perhaps the war was the inevitable conflict between the two sides of the Western character, discipline (Sparta) and imagination (Athens). Athenian overreach had certainly sparked the conflict and Shutt puts this too in the context of its time: the Greek concept of hubris. But, he asks, what of Athens had won? What of it was Athens and not Rome who made the Mediterranean basin its empire? How would that have shaped the Western World? It is a far more fruitful exploration than I—or, I daresay, most undergraduates—have experienced.

Yes, he sometimes says “Athens” when he means “Sparta”, “Rome” when he means “Carthage”. So did your professor when he or she was on a roll at the podium. You loved it then and you’ll love it now; Professor Shutt’s enthusiasm for outlandish personalities (especially Alcibiades) and mind-boggling events (particularly Cannae and Rome’s reaction to that defeat) is infectious. Just pay attention and the little verbal jumbles won’t matter.

Those Are Names to Remember...

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This is one of my favorite periods of history, and this audio book was excellent. The pacing was good, the delivery was good, and the material was very interesting. I highly recommend it.

Very Interesting and Entertaining

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