The Great Courses
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Great Courses volume 22
Description
Cinderella. Snow White. Rapunzel. These fairy-tale heroines are embedded in the cultural consciousness. What lessons are they meant to teach? And do these lessons align with current cultural values? Study the composite fairy-tale heroine, both in the classic fairy tales and in modern revisions, from authors such as Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood.
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Great Courses volume 15
Description
Discover how to create the perfect mood, space, and time for your student's academic success; how to help your student with homework-and how much help to give; and what to do when you don't have the answers.
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Great Courses volume 8
Description
The huge growth of cities was a hallmark of the Gilded Age. Study the forces leading to massive urbanization, such as industrialization, migration and immigration, and revolutionary technologies. Then track the serious social problems that resulted, from crime and disease to political corruption, which spurred intense scrutiny from reformers.
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Great Courses volume 23
Description
Use a black hole to test the laws of thermodynamics, taking a deeper look at the capacity of gravity to pull matter together and increase entropy at the same time. Probe Stephen Hawking's most surprising discovery, and then learn that the same force that pulls the apple down and steers the stars in their courses is also nature's ultimate source of order and complexity.
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Great Courses volume 6
Description
Trace Beethoven's increasing animosity toward the French, and observe the unfolding debacle of Napoleon's Peninsular War against Portugal and Spain. Learn how Beethoven came to compose Wellington's Victory, celebrating the British commander's triumph over the French at Vitoria, which was both a phenomenal success for Beethoven and a major aberration in his musical output.
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Great Courses volume 21
Description
Contemplate one of the most mesmerizing sculptures in the world. Beyond the emotional expressiveness, the writhing snakes, and the doomed children, "Laocoön" has a complicated history that reflects its importance and its genius. As a hallmark of Hellenistic art, the beauty of this piece lies not only in its composition, but in its many interpretations.
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Great Courses volume 17
Description
While there are an infinite number of exercise strategies to choose from, only a few are scientifically proven to help you lose body fat. New studies examining the effects of exercise at the cellular level reveal the value of adding specific types of resistance training to any long-term fitness regime.
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Great Courses volume 18
Description
Think about what constitutes good teaching, and look at the ways teachers teach in the U.S., Finland, Saudi Arabia, and Japan. Begin your comparison by looking at some of the school factors that influence teaching, including how teachers are trained and the degree to which they routinely collaborate.
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Great Courses volume 10
Description
What does a sustainable economy look like? Take an in-depth look at the core concepts necessary for an economy that meets people's material needs while respecting the hierarchy of sustainability and working in service to humanity and nature. Such ideas include a steady state economy and the movement for degrowth.
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Great Courses volume 12
Description
Probe the ongoing research into the effects of musical training on the microstructure of the brain, which points to cognitive benefits in areas such as speech processing. Focus on how learning to play a musical instrument influences language acquisition and reading ability in children.
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Great Courses volume 21
Description
If the human brain is the result of evolutionary processes, then many shared psychological traits must have adaptive advantages. Explore this intriguing view, known as evolutionary psychology. See how it can be illustrated by a simple logic problem, which perplexes most people until they tap into their innate skill for detecting cheaters.
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Great Courses volume 4
Description
See how events that began in revolutionary Paris inspired the expressive content of Haydn's Mass in the Time of War. Delve into the dramatic unfolding of the French Revolution, the subsequent rise of Napoleon, and the impending threat his war machine posed to Vienna. Hear the dramatic, martial character of Haydn's mass as a triumphant musical exhortation to victory against Napoleon's army.
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Great Courses volume 16
Description
Begin the first of three lectures on winter weather by pinning down the cause of ice storms, which are beautiful but also dangerous and destructive. Professor Snodgrass demonstrates how supercooled water is the source of the freezing rain behind these perilous storms.
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Great Courses volume 15
Description
Continue touring the site at Qumran, with a focus on three distinctive features of the settlement. These are animal bones found in pots; an elaborate water system that channeled flash floods into pools used for ritual bathing; and a vast cemetery containing more than 1,000 graves.
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Great Courses volume 22
Description
The Book of Kings is widely regarded as the national epic of the world's Persian-speaking community. Go inside this 11th-century epic poem that traces 50 generations of Persian kings and heroes, including Rostam-whom you'll follow on his famous seven labors and his battle with the crown prince of Persia.
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Great Courses volume 22
Description
Visit New Zealand and the regions of Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Marlborough, and Martinborough. Then, travel to Stellenbosch in South Africa, whose high-end Bordeaux blends are a delicious mix of Old World and New World tastes.
Author
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Great Courses volume 10
Description
This lecture delves into the impact culture has had on nonverbal communication. Examine the nonverbal communication differences that are driven by the integration of biology and culture, including the unwritten display rules that every culture adopts.
18) Great Tours: Greece and Turkey, from Athens to Istanbul: Byzantine Outposts - Monemvasia and Mistra
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Description
The port town of Monemvasia, once a coveted trading center, offers a rich slice of Byzantine history. Discover its mazelike streets, Byzantine buildings, and its mystical, cliffside Hagia Sophia church. Then explore Mistra's majestic Frankish castle and Byzantine palace, and contemplate the soul of Byzantium in religious architecture here and at Meteora and Mount Athos.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Description
The spring sky opens the view into intergalactic space perpendicular to the plane of the Milky Way. Among the objects visible are the immensely rich galaxy clusters in Virgo and Coma Berenices, which are many millions of light-years distant and can be seen with small and moderate telescopes.
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Series
Great Courses volume 25
Description
In 1805, after subduing much of Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte turned his sights on England. Study the events leading to the largest naval battle of the age, as Napoleon's combined French and Spanish fleet met the British navy under Admiral Horatio Nelson. Witness the monumental engagement, marking the beginning of Napoleon's decline.