The Origin of Civilization

by Scott MacEachern

What defines a civilization? How did the first states emerge? How were the world's ancient states similar and different? Answer these and other dramatic questions with this grand 48-lecture course that reveals how human beings around the world transitioned from small farming communities to the impressive cultural and political systems that would alter the course of history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Ancient History, Politics, Science, Africa

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Cav · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Origin of Civilization got off on a bumpy start and sadly, never got better...
My reviews are always very heavily weighted towards how engaging a manner the content is presented to the reader (or viewer; in this case). Unfortunately, this one really missed the mark.

I became frustrated around lecture 3. This increased around lecture 7, and I ultimately pulled the plug after lecture 15. I will likely be sending it back for a refund.
Despite the content sounding incredibly interesting, the delivery of the course material left much to be desired for me...

I'm generally a fan of the content produced by the good folks over at The Great Courses. The Origin of Civilization is my 40th offering from them. Sadly, this one fell far short of my expectations.

Course presenter Allison Scott MacEachern is Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and a professor of archaeology and anthropology at Duke Kunshan University.

Scott MacEachern:


MacEachern gets the lectures off to a really rough start, with an intro lecture that accomplishes little, other than fill 30+ minutes of time. I have rarely heard someone talk so much, and manage to say so little.
This proved to be a harbinger of what was to come...
I was hoping the course would pick up steam as it went, but it did not.

I went through 15 full lectures, which is over 7 hours, and came away with roughly zero knowledge or information on the subject matter. Terrible...
These 15 lectures could have easily been compressed into 2 or 3 with little to no noticeable loss in content. IMHO, they should have been.
MacEachern drowns the viewer in a sea of esoteric tedium and minutia, and effectively manages to lose the forest for the trees...

As of lecture 7, he had not even defined what actually constitutes a "civilization." Instead, he gives the viewer an extremely long-winded account of various opinions on what could constitute a civilization. Jesus man.

Some of the offerings from The Great Courses are excellent; with the professors covering their course material in dynamic and energetic styles; keeping the viewer interested and engaged throughout. In others; the professor drones on monotonously for the entire duration, thoroughly boring and/or frustrating the viewer. Sadly, this course was an example of the latter...

Unfortunately, my experiences reading and taking these courses have taught me that the skillset required to be a competent scientist or historian in any given discipline rarely coincides with the skill to be an effective communicator/presenter/author. This course is yet another tragic example of this.

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I rarely ever put a book or a course down (maybe I should more often), but unfortunately, this one will be added to that short list.
I was not prepared to spend any more time being frustrated with this course. So, sorry (not sorry).
I would not recommend it.
1 star, and off to the return bin...

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The strength of these lectures is that they cover a very wide range of civilizations around the globe. And the weakness of these lectures is that they cover a very wide range of civilizations around the globe. For this reason, this would’ve been a difficult course to teach, given the vast and diverse array of information that is being communicated to the student. Nevertheless, I thought the professor did a fine job of introducing us to the broad scope of the history connected to the civilizations as well as providing sufficient details to keep the material intriguing.

This is not my field of study, although it does touch on my specialization (Israel and the Old Testament). It was helpful in filling in many of my educational gaps, especially regarding the history of Mesoamerica and parts of Africa.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Teaching Company’s ‘Origin of Civilization’ lecture set provides a survey of major ancient civilizations known to us at this time. The goal of this overview is two-fold – to show that civilizations developed in pretty much every corner of the world and that they could assume forms which could be quite different from what we associate with the concept of ‘civilization’.

I do believe that professor MacEacheren has mostly achieved those goals. Over the course of 46 lectures he literally takes the listener on a trip around the world and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that civilizations could and would develop independently on every single continent throughout our history. He also shows that those civilizations took different paths in their development, rendering societies which were quite unlike our own. In regard to selection of material and quality of analysis, ‘Origin of Civilization’ is flawless and this alone makes it worth the price of admission.

Overall, I would say that the 24 hours it takes to listen through these lectures will be time well spent for anyone genuinely interested in the topic of ancient civilizations, modern archeology and history in general.

[Magen - Inquiring Professional Dog Trainer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure it makes much sense to review this sense Goodreads is going through and systematically marking all such audiobooks by The Great Courses as NOT A BOOK and deleting those without ISBNs, but I probably will still review it for my own records.

[Rik · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope, not doing it. Quit mid way through lecture three. He says in his introduction how he focuses on ethno-studies and critical race theory. I had my doubts but gave it go. Half way through the third lecture he's talking about how we look at history from the view of the elites and how we judge what civilisation is, already for the tenth odd time. I checked the chapter titles and saw it's not until lecture 10 that he gets into the actual history. The first nine are all this kind of preparing us on how we 'should' look at the questions. Just fuck off and tell us the history. I'd actually be very excited to hear about the development of african cultures from pre-history and beyond too but i could do without the woke lecturing and the re-definition of civilisation (generally the beginning of agriculture and settled societies). I kind of get his point how a lot of these other peoples and their histories are not usually covered and i agree....so just fucking cover them and tell me about them, don't waste my time with your virtue signaling. It's shame because as an expert in this stuff, according to the introduction, i bet he has a wealth of facsinating pre-colonial African history in his head!

[Jane Lebak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love archaeology. The professor's delivery is not really dynamic when he's talking about theory (the first eight lectures or so) but the actual civilizations he's talking about are fascinating. (I'll note with a little amusement that although he talks a few times about certain civilizations being overrun by others, the only one he seems miffed at are the Spanish for overruning South America.) I've earmarked a few different books to read because of this course, and I've already read The Leopard's Tale. Amazing stuff.

[Yasser Mohammad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This course gives a wide overview of the origins of states in different parts of the world. The course is well organized and contains a wealth of details without loosing the big picture.

One point I noticed is that the course did not even mention North America and Australia. It may be that no states above chiefdom level appeared in these two continents before western invasion and colonization. Nevertheless, it would have been very instructive to know this was so (if it was so).

[Elie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, history is always interesting, i was just bothered by the teacher's habit of making long pauses in the middle of sentences. I kid you not, sometimes i thought my ipod had paused.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I can't understand the many low ratings of this video-plus-book series! I loved every one of the 48 lectures--or at least 45 of them! Yes, the speaker has an interesting Maine/Canadian accent, so he speaks in phrases. I got used to that by the third lecture. He is tremendous in combining theory with specific information. He is wonderful at showing how we humans went from hunter-gatherers to people living in communities and then cities. He is fantastic at adding humor to his speaking! Recommended for all who are interested in the beginnings of human life together!

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This course is mostly an archaeological exploration of the origin of civilization. This is not what I was expecting nor hoping for. I found myself very disappointed but carried on hoping that I would learn something that would feed my curiosity. Instead, I was left bored, and more turned off in my interests to better understand this part of human history. I would not recommend this course to anybody I know.

[Claudie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe the content would have been interesting after chapter 10 but the teacher's diction is unbearable. He pauses during sentences, it's very weird and even if you pour your heart into it, you end up... mad at him.

[Skuli Saeland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ein af fáum bókum sem ég klára ekki af þrjóskunni einni saman. Þokkaleg yfirferð um upphaf siðmenningar.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dry , but I now have a clear idea of how we became

[Stacie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty standard fare, nothing that I was unfamiliar with, and oh my God does that man blather on. So many times by the time he got to the point I'd forgotten what it was in reference to.

[Brian Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though it could have been read better, the content was excellent and very interesting. Unique and evidential view on such a large topic.