Books That Have Made History Books That Can Change Your Life (The Great Courses Teaching Tha... Book

As a long time customer of The Teaching Company, I've listened to dozens of their courses over the years and this is, by far, the most enjoyable course I've encountered.

The late Professor Fears is a classical scholar, delivering his lectures with a sense of moral assuredness that one would be hard pressed to encounter in these times, I'm afraid. The last lecture alone, his summation, is worth the price of this course and is one I'll listen to again.

These lectures on great books aren't so much book summaries as a tour through the ages, not always in linear fashion, on a quest to explore the following themes:
The meaning of life
Truth
Duty
Justice
Love
Courage, honor and ambition
Beauty and nature
History
Education

Professor Fears' own convictions come through each lecture, and whether I agree with them or not, I respect them and admire the mind that assembled them

There are so many gems in this course that it's difficult to choose which ones to point out, but here are a few:

- Prof. Fears' style: Because of this Southern US accent, his words come across as homespun, almost humble, yet they are imbued with the strength of his convictions;
- The discussion that perhaps great books should not be foisted upon the young and unready;
- Prof. Fears' observation, from 2005 I believe, that "we may be entering an age that is
radically different from the previous 5,000 years," (the acceptance of which is difficult yet necessary).

I truly cannot recommend this series of lectures highly enough. Upon completion of this course, I immediately purchased all of the other courses Prof. Fears made for The Teaching Company (now The Great Courses) through Audible.