The Modern Scholar: Odyssey of the West I: A Classic Education through the Great Books: Hebrews and Greeks

By: Prof. Timothy Shutt, Prof. Eric H. Cline, Prof. Kim J. Hartswick, Prof. Peter Meineck, Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman

Narrated by: Professor Timothy B. Shutt, Professor Eric H. Cline, Professor Kim J. Hartswick, Professor Peter Meineck, Professor Lawrence H. Schiffman

Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

This course is an interdisciplinary series of connected lectures delivered by eminent scholars from several colleges and universities. Each professor addresses an area of personal expertise and focuses not only on the matter at hand, but on the larger story-on the links between the works and the figures discussed. The lectures address-in chronological sequence-a series of major works that have shaped the ongoing development of Western thought both in their own right and in cultural dialogue with other traditions.

In the process, the course engages many of the most perennial and far-reaching questions that we face in our daily lives. The lectures draw upon the resources of history, philosophy, literary study, art history, religious studies, political science, and the history of science and technology, in hopes of engaging the rich and profoundly interactive discussions that, over the course of 40 centuries, have made Western culture what it is.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2007 Timothy Shutt (P)2007 Recorded Books

This was fun

Look at the accompanying reference guide, it says it all. I really enjoyed this book

NO SEPARATE CHAPTERS FORMAT!

Beware that you would be downloading a single, 8.5 hour long recording! This is incredibly impractical. You will not be able to skip from one lecture to the next, or look up a particular lecture that you are interested in; your only option is listening from start to finish.

Definitely worth the listen, but...

I really enjoyed these lectures and plan to continue on with the series.

My only complaint was with the quality of the delivery: there were a number of places where the same phrase was repeated (I assume an editing error), and the lecturers sometimes seemed to be deliberately reading their lines to the point of it being a bit halting - I imagine the long pauses between words being the result of having to find their place in the script, rather than just telling us the story.

Still - a very interesting introduction that has piqued my interest to keep learning more.

Splendid all around.

In my opinion, this is one of the best in the Modern Scholor series. As a long time Audible user, I've never heard of downloading my selections chapter by chapter. They are always delivered in ~ 8 hour increments. I was puzzled by the other reviewer who downgraded the entire course because of unsupported functionality. I don't think this has anything to do with the course itself. This is a good survey course.

Happy Trails...

Teaching cultural history through great books seems obvious, but have never encountered it before this series. I enjoyed the switching of narrators. It gave it an organic feel, like they all had their particular interests and couldn't wait to tell you about them. Great detail and explanations about things I have heard about, but never really understood.

A fun listen

Who among us doesn't love ancient text? I did get lost on the Greek play sections, since I know so little about that stuff. I did love the section on Homer since I know so little about that stuff. The section on the old testament was near brilliant.

As always you get you money's worth on a modern scholar course.

Chapter Divisions ARE Present

I think the negative review that suggests there aren't chapter divisions in this audiobook should be removed, because it is not accurate, at least in iTunes and on my iPod Touch. Remember that in iTunes, the Chapters menu appears in the TOP (main application) menu, as the next-to-last item. There you can choose any of the 14 chapters. And on the iPod, there is a small icon in the upper right in the audio app that lets you do the same. For anyone who has an Audible subscription, these Modern Scholar lecture sets are among the absolute best bargains in the store. Don't forget that you can download the beautiful pdf lecture notes that go with the course. I have found that the spoken and written versions sometimes differ in detail, each with its own rewards.