Begin your survey of 36 events and ideas that changed history by taking a close look at the creation of Hammurabi’s code of law. With its concepts of minimum wage, family law, and victims’ rights, the code provided many fundamental elements that can still be found in today’s legal systems.
Monotheism is a predominant religious tradition throughout much of the world, and its emergence dates back to the era of Moses. Here, discover how the life of Moses—including such iconic events as the Exodus and the issuing of the Ten Commandments—set the stage for three great religions that continue to influence adherents worldwide.
Explore another fundamental religious event that forever changed the world: the development of Buddhism through the teachings of Siddartha Gautama. The messages of this world faith—including leaving behind all that makes you angry and treating everyone with kindness—have helped billions ponder the meaning of their lives.
Confucius was an ancient Chinese scholar who lost his job for speaking the truth and thus shaped the history of one of today’s most important nations. In revealing how Confucius shaped the world through the Dao (or “Way”), Professor Fears shows why all civilizations are indebted to this thinker and his profound philosophy.
The democratic ideals that form the core of Western civilization wouldn’t exist without Solon, the ancient Greek ruler responsible for introducing the first truly balanced democracy to Athens. Learn how this system was structured, why troubling economic conditions made the city-state ripe for political reform, and more.
After democracy was created, it had to be protected. And no battle was more important to defending democracy in its formative stages than the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. Relive the clash between Athens and the massive Persian Empire; a conflict that involved decisive leadership and surprise tactics.
Thousands of years after it was first spoken, the Hippocratic Oath is still revered by doctors around the world. Travel back to ancient Athens and investigate how Hippocrates revolutionized our understanding of medicine—just in time for the Great Plague of Athens, which devastated the city-state in 430 B.C.
Why was Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon River in 49 B.C. such a momentous event in world history? What was the story behind this dramatic moment? And how did it bring about a political concept that would dominate Western civilization for the next 1,800 years? Find out in this fascinating lecture.
In A.D. 36, Jesus of Nazareth was put on trial before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate—and the verdict would forever alter the course of human civilization and spirituality. Follow the path of Christianity’s founder and examine why he was considered to be, at the time, such a revolutionary figure.
Travel back to A.D. October 28, 312. Against a background of fierce Christian persecution, Constantine marches into Rome and becomes history’s first Christian emperor. In the process, this iconic—yet despotic—leader transformed his faith into a powerful religious force that would spread throughout Europe and the Near East.
Islam is one of the world’s great monotheistic faiths, and in today’s world, is sometimes misunderstood. The spread of Islam around the world began in A.D. 622 with Muhammad’s flight into the city of Medina. This momentous date and its implications are the subject of this captivating lecture.
Before Cambridge and Oxford, there was the University of Bologna, founded in Italy in 1088. Here, Professor Fears details how Europe’s first academic institution emerged and, in doing so, reveals the origins of scholarly procedures and educational traditions that remain with us well into the 21st century.
Discover how Dante’s love for Beatrice—and the epic poem he would write to honor her—brought about the birth of the Renaissance. One of the most important works of literature ever written, The Divine Comedy focuses on the rebirth of the human spirit through the power of God’s love.
Just as important to history are beautiful events like the creation of artistic masterpieces. One of the most supreme of these: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. Here, Professor Fears guides you through some of the work’s many powerful religious images, each of which illustrates the High Renaissance ideal of absolute beauty.
Witness as Erasmus’s edition of the New Testament, which translated the Bible from Latin back into its original Greek, revolutionizes Christianity and paves the way for the Protestant Reformation. Along the way, learn what this work owes to the humanist ideology of the time and the invention of the printing press.
One of the most defining moments in religious history was the Protestant Reformation. And it all started with the subject of this lecture: All Hallows Eve, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the door of Wittenberg University’s chapel and challenged Europe’s most powerful religious and political institutions.
One of the most decisive naval battles in human history, the defeat of the Spanish armada at the hands of the British navy, marked Britain’s transition from island nation into global empire. How did this epic clash come about? And what strategies did the British use to beat back the Spanish forces?
Using his expert storytelling abilities, Professor Fears recreates the 1683 Battle of Vienna—a defining moment in the struggle between the values of the Middle East and the values of the West. This battle between the Ottoman and Holy Roman empires would also create geopolitical tensions that remain even today.
The United States of America, the first modern nation founded on moral principles, wouldn’t exist without the battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Explore the moment that sparked the birth of our country, and learn how it led to a declaration of independence and a full-blown revolution against Great Britain.
Had the Confederacy won the Civil War, the history of the United States would have been vastly different. And the reason for the Confederacy’s ultimate decline and defeat was the iconic Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863—the subject of this dynamic lecture on a pivotal moment in American history.
Separated by almost a century, Adam Smith and Karl Marx could not have been more different in their economic views. And yet, as you discover, their respective works—Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and Marx’s Das Kapital—established two conflicting views of capitalism that are still with us today.
Encounter another book that shook the foundations of history: Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. The product of an ocean voyage in 1831, the work described the theory of evolution by natural selection, an idea that would revolutionize not only the science and culture of Darwin’s time, but of the 20th century as well.
In this lecture, Professor Fears explains why Louis Pasteur’s germ theory of disease changed history and, with it, the life of every man, woman, and child on the planet. It’s an engaging medical story that transformed rabies, anthrax, cholera, and more from immediate death sentences into conquerable illnesses.
Humanity’s conquest of the air began with a single flight taken by two brothers from Ohio. Discover the story behind the Wright brothers’ 1903 first flight at Kitty Hawk, an unprecedented event that would have enormous implications for the future of commercial travel, warfare, and space flight.
With the 1914 assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the stage was set for World War I and for the turmoil that would last most of the 20th century. Travel back to Sarajevo as political terrorists commit one of the most shocking murders in modern history.
November, 1917: The Bolsheviks seized power from the broken Russian Empire. What emerged was the Soviet Union, which would become one of the most powerful geopolitical forces of the 20th century. Unearth the roots of Communist Russia and the revolutionary moment that turned the dream of a Communist state into a bitter reality.
t was a devastating economic event that shattered the lives of millions and created a tidal wave of effects around the world. Here, experience the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, from the personal perspective of an everyday American family; also, learn how it set the stage for events covered in subsequent lectures.
Professor Fears’s theme in this lecture is Adolph Hitler’s inauguration as chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Once in power, this political leader would unleash both World War II and the Holocaust. So how—and why—did history’s greatest monster gain such a strong hold over the German people?
The very same year Hitler became chancellor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president of the United States. Focusing on the honest and inspiring inauguration speech delivered on March 4, learn how Roosevelt instilled hope in a disillusioned and wounded nation, as well as prepared it to face the tough times ahead.
Visit the birth of the Atomic Age with the explosion of the first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. It was a terrifying moment in world history that had an untold impact on the future of warfare, science, and geopolitics.
No one in 1900 would have predicted that, a century later, China would become one of the world’s superpowers. And it all started in 1934 with the rise of Mao Zedong, chairman of the Communist Party—whose authoritarian rule is the heart of this intriguing lecture.
Why, and how, did the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, change the course of history? Find out the answer by exploring this iconic leader’s rise to political success, his handling of important international crises—and the tragic day that signaled an end to America’s innocence.
Along with the Gettysburg Address and the inaugural addresses of Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy is Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Professor Fears retells the life of the civil rights leader behind this landmark moment, along with the ways he sought to heal a racially divided nation.
Conclude the course with a pointed examination of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the new world they created. Afterward, meditate on the lessons learned from the past 35 lectures and come to realize one of the most fundamental lessons of history.