Catalog Search Results
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
The funeral procession was the most important ceremony performed in ancient Athens. Pericles's funeral speech, delivered over the war dead, as captured by Thucydides, is one of the most striking pieces of prose to survive from that time. Witness the structure of the funeral ceremony and unpack Pericles's great speech.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
After exploring the roots of the presidency and presidential power as outlined in the Constitution, consider the advantages and disadvantages a president has during an investigation. Then, Professor Rosenzweig explains why this subject is essential knowledge for any American citizen.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Take a break from the historical narrative to explore the world of the theater, one of Athens's greatest cultural achievements. As you will learn in your study of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and others, there is a strong connection between politics and the theater.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
After the Nixon presidency, Congress and the American public became convinced that an independent investigator function was essential. Twenty years later, they let that function expire. Follow the swing from the Nixon era to the independent counsel of the Reagan and Clinton eras back to the special counsel leading the investigation of Russian election hacking and the 2016 Trump campaign.
65) Democracy at War
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
The ancient Greeks were a bellicose people, and they considered military service a privilege. Innovations such as hoplite warfare and the construction of their navy, manned by the poorest citizens, went hand in hand with the development of democracy in Athens, particularly since the Athenian military had no permanent commander in chief.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Today, legislative and judicial oversight of the presidency are a permanent part of American government and critical to limiting and restraining the possibility of executive abuse. In this lecture, learn how our system of checks and balances came to exist - with, among other things, a close look at the landmark judicial review case, Marbury v. Madison.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Investigate the use of presidential pardons. Start by looking at two general types of pardons in American history: the "justice and mercy" pardon and the "peacefulness" pardon. Then, focus on key questions about the presidential pardon power: Can American presidents pardon co-conspirators for crimes they've committed, thereby frustrating an investigation? Can they pardon themselves?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
A successful public life depends on public speaking, so it should come as no surprise that the Athenians prided themselves on rhetoric. After learning a little about the art of public speaking, you will witness several of the great political debates of the era, including one politician's contention that his opponents were delivering, essentially, "fake news."
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Among Greek city-states, Athens was not alone in having a form of democratic rule. As you'll discover in this lecture, Greek governments ran on a sliding scale from oligarchy and democracy to kingship and tyranny. Delve into Homer's epics to examine several early examples of democratic assembly.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Begin the course by considering the nature of Athenian democracy and how it functioned in practice. After surveying some of its key tenets, Professor Garland compares the Athenian governmental system to western democracy today, showing both the similarities and crucial differences.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Presidential lies can undermine our belief in the fairness of our system of government and our faith in its legitimacy. In this lecture, focus on how the president isn't special when it comes to certain matters of law and evidence (lying under oath, obstruction of justice, and grand jury subpoenas) - as well as some key caveats to this view.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Presidential crises and abuses of power aren't just features of modern times. Early executive scandals have had significant long-term effects that resonate down the corridors of time. Learn how we're still dealing with the fallout of famous investigations into abuses of presidential power, including Ulysses S. Grant's Whiskey Ring and Warren G. Harding's Teapot Dome scandal.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Conclude this lecture series with a study of the "nuclear option" in presidential investigations: impeachment. Learn why impeachment is inevitably as much a political event as a legal one - and why, when a presidency is on the line, public opinion is at least as powerful a determinant of the outcome as the laws that are on the books.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
What did the Athenians themselves think about their system of government? Professor Garland shows that not everyone in the city-state was thrilled by the democracy. Despite moments of friction, such as during the Peloponnesian War, Athenian democracy was largely a success.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Explore the Athenians’ view of their great political experiment: democracy. In 24 history-rich episodes, Professor Robert Garland takes you into the world of leaders like Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles, as well as the judgments of contemporary historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides. The result is a fascinating story of what is arguably the boldest political initiative in history.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Shift your attention to another important arm of the government. Explore the roles of the Council of 500 officials chosen by lot, required to serve for a whole year, as well as the respected (if not particularly powerful) magistrates known as archons. Then, review the relatively limited systems of taxation and welfare in ancient Athens.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Beyond democracy, the cultural achievements of ancient Athens are some of the most impressive in all of world history. Survey some of the city's great buildings and sculptures - including the Propylaea and the frieze of the Parthenon - to find out what made Athenian culture so distinctive, and where it came up short.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
The Delian Confederacy - originally an association of free city-states that Athens turned into an instrument of imperial ambitions - played a major role in 5th-century Greece. Follow the confederacy from the Persian Wars to the Peloponnesian War. Find out what each of the allies got out of the confederacy, and how Athens made sure it benefited the most.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Greece is often described as the "cradle of democracy," but democracy was not a continuing entity from its beginnings in the 7th century BC through today. In this lecture, Professor Garland traces the story of democracy from the end of 4th-century Athens (when democracy took a nosedive) through modern times.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
Revisit the march through Athenian history with a look at one of the city's less admirable periods. Beginning with the outbreak of a terrible plague around 431 BC and continuing through the civil war on Corcyra (modern Corfu), the doom and gloom of this period were caused less by the nature of democracy and rather more by plain old human nature, as the historian Thucydides observed.
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