Do the lessons passed down to us by history, lessons whose origins may lie hundreds, even thousands of years in the past, still have value for us today? Is Santayana’s oft-repeated saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”, merely a way to offer lip service to history as a teacher – or can we indeed learn from it? And if we can, what is it that we should be learning?

In this unflinching series of 36 lectures, a world-renowned scholar makes the case that we not only can learn from history, but must.

Drawing on decades of experience as a classical historian, Professor Fears explores history’s patterns to conclude that ignoring them – whether by choice or because we’ve never learned to see them – is to risk becoming their prisoner, repeating the mistakes that have toppled leaders, nations, and empires throughout time.

In this personal reflection on history, Professor Fears has taken on the challenge of extracting the past’s lessons in ways that speak to us today, showing us how the experience of ancient empires such as those of Rome and Persia have much to teach us about the risks and responsibilities of being a superpower.

He shows how the study of those who left their impact on an earlier world – Caesar Augustus or Genghis Khan, George Washington or Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi or Josef Stalin – can equip us to make responsible choices as nations, citizens, or individuals in a post-9/11 world where those choices are more crucial than ever.

Reviews

The Wisdom of History is a series of lectures performed by Professor Rufus Fears and is part of The Great Courses series. In these lectures, he describes patterns in human history and the lessons that we can learn from them today. His course covers a huge time period, touching on leaders who have made a huge impact on history, such as King David, Gandhi, Chuchill and Hitler. There have been some controversial comments about this course. Professor Fears has very strong opinions and voices them in the lectures. But as he mentions in the course bibliography, “I have followed Lord Acton’s dictum that it is the mark of an uneducated person to read books he or she agrees with. The educated person reads books he or she disagrees with. Thus I have frequently recommended books that disagree with me because these are the ones we find most stimulating.” And these lectures are very stimulating! Not only are his stories of the past lively and captivating, but he also raises some interesting theories. Alhtough I don’t agree with all of them, I value how they really made me pause and consider not only how we view certain events in history, but our practices in our current society.

Although the lectures are very entertaining, the course is long – 36 lectures of 30 minutes each. I found it was a fun treat to listen to 1 or 2 lectures a day and intersperse these with my other audiobooks. Highly recommended!

About the Author

Dr. J. Rufus Fears is David Ross Boyd Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma, where he holds the G. T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty. He also serves as David and Ann Brown Distinguished Fellow of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Before joining the faculty at the University of Oklahoma, Professor Fears was Professor of History and Distinguished Faculty Research Lecturer at Indiana University, and Professor of Classical Studies and Chair of the Department of Classical Studies at Boston University.

An acclaimed teacher and scholar with 25 awards for teaching excellence, Professor Fears was chosen Professor of the Year on three occasions by students at the University of Oklahoma. His other accolades include the Medal for Excellence in College and University Teaching from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) Great Plains Region Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the UCEA’s National Award for Teaching Excellence.

Professor Fears’s books and monographs include The Cult of Jupiter and Roman Imperial Ideology and The Theology of Victory at Rome. He edited a three-volume edition of Selected Writings of Lord Acton. His discussions of the Great Books have appeared in newspapers across the country and have aired on national television and radio programs.

Product details

• Full Audiobook MP3 Format
• Full PDF Guidebook Included
• Listening Length: 18 hours and 18 minutes
• Author: J. Rufus Fears, The Great Courses
• Narrator: J. Rufus Fears
• Release Date: July 08, 2013
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Version: Original recording
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00DTO6BOI

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