The Wisdom of History

by J. Rufus Fears

18 audio CDs with guidebooks which outline the course.

Course Lecture Titles (36 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
1. Why We Study History
2. World War I and the Lessons of History
3. Hitler's Rise and the Lessons of History
4. World War II and the Lessons of History
5. Is Freedom a Universal Value?
6. Birth of Civilization in the Middle East
7. The Trojan War and the Middle East
8. Ancient Israel and the Middle East
9. Ancient Greece and the Middle East
10. Athenian Democracy and Empire
11. The Destiny of the Athenian Democracy
12. Alexander the Great and the Middle East
13. The Roman Republic as Superpower
14. Rome of the Caesars as Superpower
15. Rome and the Middle East
16. Why the Roman Empire Fell
17. Christianity
18. Islam
19. The Ottoman Empire and Turkey
20. The Spanish Empire and Latin America
21. Napoleon's Liberal Empire
22. The British Empire in India
23. Russia and Empire
24. China and Empire
25. The Empire of Genghis Khan
26. Britain's Legacy of Freedom
27. George Washington as Statesman
28. Thomas Jefferson as Statesman
29. America's Empire of LibertyLewis and Clark
30. America and Slavery
31. Abraham Lincoln as Statesman
32. The United States and Empire
33. Franklin Roosevelt as Statesman
34. A Superpower at the Crossroads
35. The Wisdom of History and the Citizen
36. The Wisdom of History and You



Wisdom of History
(36 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
Course No. 4360
Taught by J. Rufus Fears
University of Oklahoma
Ph.D., Harvard University

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Philosophy, World History, Politics, Historical

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Dr. J. Rufus Fears is David Ross Boyd Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma, where he holds the G. T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty. He also serves as David and Ann Brown Distinguished Fellow of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Before joining the faculty at the University of Oklahoma, Professor Fears was Professor of History and Distinguished Faculty Research Lecturer at Indiana University, and Professor of Classical Studies and Chair of the Department of Classical Studies at Boston University.

An acclaimed teacher and scholar with 25 awards for teaching excellence, Professor Fears was chosen Professor of the Year on three occasions by students at the University of Oklahoma. His other accolades include the Medal for Excellence in College and University Teaching from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) Great Plains Region Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the UCEA's National Award for Teaching Excellence.

Professor Fears's books and monographs include The Cult of Jupiter and Roman Imperial Ideology and The Theology of Victory at Rome. He edited a three-volume edition of Selected Writings of Lord Acton. His discussions of the Great Books have appeared in newspapers across the country and have aired on national television and radio programs.

Reviews

[Foppe · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was positively shocked at this course. I'd already sampled another course by Fears (which I disliked somewhat less), but I'd never have expected this.
The lesson, according to Fears, we should take from WWII, is the following: Hitler lost because he did not have a moral compass. Churchill won because he did.
To quote the fellow:

He maintained his hold on Germany by the use of radio, and movies. The technology of the age made his armies in the first months of the war invincible, and it was technology that enabled him to carry out genocide on a scale that Ghenghis Khan could not imagine and it was the finest scientists of his day, in Germany, who worked to achieve these evil goals. So he was able to achieve a consensus for that vision. In fact he took 80 million of the most industrious, intelligent, best educated people in the world and made them willing part of this nightmare vision. But what did he lack? He lacked that moral compass. He believed that he was truly a world historical figure beyond good and evil. beyond the Judgment of History. And in that one way he differed from Winston Churchill, his great Nemesis. You see, Churchill HAD a bed-rock of principles based on liberty. He had an unswerving Moral Compass, he had a vision of the world living in Freedom, but all through the 30s he could not achieve that consensus because Churchill knew History. In fact of all of our statesmen who parade across our screen Churchill truly understood the wisdom of history. He wrote historical books and he tried to get his fellow citizens and his fellow politicians to understand what a menace this was."

This, sadly, teaches us exactly nothing. Even if you ignore the technophobia, the implicit Nietzsche-bashing, the silly comparison with Genghis Khan, and the dramatization, there is no arguments presented at all for why Hitler was able to do so more effectively than his opponents, why he eventually lost, etc. All you're supposed to "learn" is that Christian Values won the day. The triteness is mind-boggling. Yes, he may be first and foremost a storyteller, but I'm sure one could construct a story with lessons that can be drawn from it without resorting to whig historywriting/post-hoc fallacious reasoning.
There are other examples I could give, but I'm not even sure that "fair use" allows me to quote this much, so I'll leave it at this. If you want to see a world-view confirmed, listen to this. If you want to be challenged, however, pick another course

[Michael Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

J Rufus Fears is always worth listening to, especially his Famous Romans and Greek lectures. But these are a good overview of what to learn from history as well.

[Andrea Hickman Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite being a very effective and evocative speaker, I found the lecturer's accent quite distracting. His ardent nationalism was rather off-putting as well. The content, however, is worrying relevant, especially things like "you can't wall out foreign problems", and his contention that people generally do not learn from the past.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wisdom of History is a series of lectures performed by Professor Rufus Fears and is part of The Great Courses series. In these lectures, he describes patterns in human history and the lessons that we can learn from them today. His course covers a huge time period, touching on leaders who have made a huge impact on history, such as King David, Gandhi, Chuchill and Hitler. There have been some controversial comments about this course. Professor Fears has very strong opinions and voices them in the lectures. But as he mentions in the course bibliography, "I have followed Lord Acton's dictum that it is the mark of an uneducated person to read books he or she agrees with. The educated person reads books he or she disagrees with. Thus I have frequently recommended books that disagree with me because these are the ones we find most stimulating." And these lectures are very stimulating! Not only are his stories of the past lively and captivating, but he also raises some interesting theories. Alhtough I don't agree with all of them, I value how they really made me pause and consider not only how we view certain events in history, but our practices in our current society.

Although the lectures are very entertaining, the course is long - 36 lectures of 30 minutes each. I found it was a fun treat to listen to 1 or 2 lectures a day and intersperse these with my other audiobooks. Highly recommended!

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In sometimes it felt like the professor was oversimplifying the historical events or even like he sometimes wanted to fit the events to his theories (rather than the other way around). But overall a very fine course with lots and lots of wisdom to chew upon. Highly recommended.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jingoistic approach to history and is best appreciated by those who refuse to be challenged and see history only in terms of a pernicious teleological perspective.

I absolutely loved Rufus Fears’ other courses. His ‘Great Books’ course was my introduction to the ‘The Great Courses’. He lit a fire in me and I’ve probably have done 50 or so Great Course Lectures because of him. Gosh, was I surprised by the way he mangled history and forced it into his weird framing by trying to create ‘laws of history’ with ‘freedom is not universal but power is’ and ‘preemptive wars are good’ and ‘the old testament is part of our modern day basis for freedom’ and ‘great leaders come along and give us the history we deserve’.

First Samuel was not written in 950 B.C.E. (check Wiki), the North did not preemptively invade the South to start the Civil War, the Old Testament is not the basis for today’s freedom (good gosh, slavery is explicitly allowed in it and you can beat a slave as long as they don't die within three days, see Exodus 21:20, it just seems absurd to claim our freedom comes from such a book), Christianity is not an exemplar for freedom (Fears will say, that you have the freedom to choose to be a Christian voluntarily but of course if you don't they will often 'believe' you will go to eternal damnation, doesn't really seem like a free choice to me), and beliefs without foundation are a great thing and leads to positive results: all these things and more are things Fears wrongly tells his listener in order to defend his overall theme of ‘freedom is not universal’ and democracies are not made to be a super power, but the USA is special because we are, at least he’ll say we are, and you know, he'll say you really can't trust the Muslim countries because their religion and their government are one and the same not like the USA's at least that what he says (tell me again why America did not allow gays to marry in 2007 when this lecture was done. Oh, yeah, it had something to do with 'marriage is between a man and a woman' and that's what the Christian bible says, end of debate!).

Also, Fears has what I would call the ‘great man theory of history’ which means that cultures need a great man (or evil man) for destiny to unfold, and he even had a lecture on Napoleon. I would strongly suggest reading ‘War and Peace’ for a refutation of Fear’s perspective, but if you don’t have the time to read the 80 hours of that book, I’ll just tell you that Tolstoy said Napoleon’s barber changed the fate of the world by giving him a cold and causing the Russians to win that war and therefore the real great man was Napoleon's barber.

We understand our now, but when one looks at history retroactively through the lenses of the now one can force an unintended teleology to the past and derive ‘laws of history’ (which don’t exist, at the most history gives us suggestions, never laws as Fears believes), and Fears says he is using Thucydides’ ‘Peloponnesus War’ as a template for his lectures, but he misses the real theme of that book, namely, understanding the particular of history leads to understanding the universal of life and not the themes that Fears says. Read Thucydides and decide for yourself.

In spite of all my negativity expressed above, I still appreciate the great story telling within the lectures, but I’m reminded of the old line ‘in spite of all that Mrs. Lincoln how did you like the play’. I didn't like the heavy handedness of the lectures overall and I can’t ignore the disaster of his major themes within these lectures, and I really am amazed by how Fears twisted history in order to connect dots that shouldn’t be connected.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This course was both challenging and enjoyable. Professor Fears is an entertaining speaker. He obviously loves his subject and is able to make historical figures come alive as three dimensional characters. I never got bored during the course. If you look at the 36 lecture titles, the course at first looks overwhelming but Fears presents history as a series of repeating patterns. Over the course of the lectures, Fears teaches the listener to detect recurring patterns and look for his eight themes in history. My favorite theme is that science and technology cannot immunize us against the lessons of history. I may not be quite ready for the final exam but the course has given me some tools and skills for looking at history.

[Mark Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fears is a master lecturer and manages to keep strong, clear threads running through the entire narrative. I was smitten. I learned my lesson, too: people never learn their lessons.

[Strong Extraordinary Dreams · Rating 1 out of 5]

Virtually no redeeming features. Supplies absolutely NO wisdom from history; just highlights the C20 American high school history syllabus with a few add ons.

Lots of errors, like the still-repeated claims that the West derives it's heritage from the Roman and Grecian empires (it doesn't: The Islamic world is the inheritor of those cultures; the West grew out of Germanic and Saxon tribes). The purposely - not accidentally - sidesteps inconvenient history, like that the bundle of rods with an ax in it is a fascii, from which we get "Fascist".

One last: accepts and repeats the almost infinitely stupid story that the insanely violent Pontius Pilot, under the insane and violent Tiberious, was a good, peace loving guy just trying to get by. . . because the author's moronic church said so.

By far the worst of these first-year-courses-as-audio-CDs I have listened to, out of maybe 10.

Avoid.

[JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fears' lecture series is superb. I enjoyed every moment of it and still find myself contemplating some of the questions he raises. What I like most about his approach is that he takes a consistent position in the form of a framework that teaches his audience to extend to other scenarios. For example, he often prompts thoughts about what makes a statesman distinct from a politician. The issue is complex, because even dictators we oppose can still be statesmen, even while the ends toward which they work are so opposed to our own interests. Fears has helped me know more about Alexander, Augustus, Jefferson, and Washington. He's also made me think differently about Lincoln, Napoleon, Stalin, and Mao.

[Izaak · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't make it past chapter 3.

There is a bit of the expected layout "these are the lessons of 'the wisdom of history'" but almost zero backing is provided for where these come from, and all of them seem to be related to the struggles with nationalism. Further they are bias in the extreme in favor of all things USA, with zero acknowledgement of the historical origin of the US.

[Kristen Beck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been my all time favorite lecture in The Great Courses! He shows how much history really does repeat itself and that we should be studying history more. He also talks about the difference between freedom and power. Loved it!

[Stanley Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read or listened to several of Dr. Fear's works and this one ranks near the top. There are several times I had to stop and take notes or reread as he got me thinking about his writing. Excellent work.

[Miles Foltermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Deeply disappointing and well below the quality of the average Great Course. I’m baffled as to how the material even became a course. This series is just hour after hour of riffing on history, with no clear telos. This was my first J. Rufus Fears course, and also my last.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just one more superb set of lectures. I have thoroughly enjoyed every lecture series I've heard from Professor Fears.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fears rocks!

[Victoria Mclaren bellmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing course. J Rufus Spears brings history alive with passion and knowledge. His erudition of history is vast, and he demonstrates the cyclical nature of empires. It was truly an amazing course.

[Mario Russo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. While I agree with some of the critics regarding interpretation on how some empires have failed, there are other interpretations very insightful. Excellent stuff.

[Aaron Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the importance of doing so, we do not learn from history.

Science and technology cannot immunize us from history's lessons.

Freedom, which Americans believe is longed for by people worldwide, is not a globally shared value. By contrast, desire for power, whether wielded as a despot, or as a benevolent empire or superpower, is a universal value.

Known as the cradle of civilization, the Middle East has also been the graveyard of empires, no matter what their intention, as the Romans and so many others have learned.

America will experience the same ultimate destiny as the memorable democracies, republics, and superpowers of the past.

Religion and spirituality—and the lust for power—are the most profound motivators in history.

Nations and empires rise and fall not because of anonymous social and economic forces but because of decisions made by individuals.

A true statesman possesses four qualities: a bedrock of principles, a moral compass, a vision, and the ability to build consensus to achieve that vision.




1. Why We Study History
2. World War I and the Lessons of History
3. Hitler's Rise and the Lessons of History
4. World War II and the Lessons of History
5. Is Freedom a Universal Value?
6. Birth of Civilization in the Middle East
7. The Trojan War and the Middle East
8. Ancient Israel and the Middle East
9. Ancient Greece and the Middle East
10. Athenian Democracy and Empire
11. The Destiny of the Athenian Democracy
12. Alexander the Great and the Middle East
13. The Roman Republic as Superpower
14. Rome of the Caesars as Superpower
15. Rome and the Middle East
16. Why the Roman Empire Fell
17. Christianity
18. Islam
19. The Ottoman Empire and Turkey
20. The Spanish Empire and Latin America
21. Napoleon's Liberal Empire
22. The British Empire in India
23. Russia and Empire
24. China and Empire
25. The Empire of Genghis Khan
26. Britain's Legacy of Freedom

This lecture considers the heritage of freedom that developed in England and was passed on to America, where it merged with four other crucial historical currents of freedom—the Old Testament, Greece and Rome, Christianity, and the U.S. frontier.

27. George Washington as Statesman
28. Thomas Jefferson as Statesman
29. America's Empire of Liberty—Lewis and Clark
30. America and Slavery
31. Abraham Lincoln as Statesman
32. The United States and Empire
33. Franklin Roosevelt as Statesman
34. A Superpower at the Crossroads
35. The Wisdom of History and the Citizen
36. The Wisdom of History and You

[Brett Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather than a linear ancient-to-modern treatment, Professor Fears jumps about to exemplify his 10 lessons of history. It works. Among the lessons: people don’t learn from history, freedom is not a universal desire, power is and religion is rocket fuel, the Mid East is the graveyard of empires, and nations rise and fall on decisions by leaders not social movements (that great tug-o-war between historians).

I found his lectures on Rome of particular interest, especially the fall of Republic with so many identities between them and us, the US: money corrupted politics, lavish government debt to keep or buy office, the Optimate party vs. the Populares party, both with the purpose to ensure legislation from the other side never passed.

Fears style is sometimes dramatic, occasionally melodramatic, but he’s excited about his topic, I didn’t mind. He often speaks from the standpoint of his subject, e.g. Genghis Khan as one of the greatest of conquerors (savage murderers). But he points out the hypocrisies throughout, notably in the final half dozen lectures. That said, he does seem to give excess credit to Judaism as though longevity were evidence of something unique, as it may well be, but it seemed to be something more, like… What? Supernatural? If antiquity is the proof, then Hindus win that contest.

A fine series. I look forward to the 200 pages of study guide – transcripts read rather than heard, with maps.

[Hans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Score: 2/5 (parts worth listening once).
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Themes: history
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At its best, the lectures are insightful, and I thought the lectures about the Peloponnesian and Punic wars were especially good. But it's not all good.

Some claims could most generously be termed "arguable" such as stating that the ideals of the French revolution somehow constituted a "theology" in order to make the Napoleonic wars religiously motivated and thereby support the claims that religion motivates empires.

At other times the arguments are just incoherent, such as when the lecturer argues simultaneously that Napoleonic France and Nazi Germany were doomed to failure because of an ancient failed invasion of Scythia, but the United States and United Kingdom should have declared war on the USSR "while they had the chance" for inevitable success to prevent an "evil empire".

Or when arguing that ancient republics failed because they failed to provide enough land to guarantee the personal liberty of citizens, but empires failed because they didn't know when to stop expanding.

It's also unapologetically America-centric, so your mileage may vary depending on how you feel about the United States of America.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wisdom of History by Rufus Fears is an odd little course. Fears often makes appeals comprised of sweeping statements, especially when it comes to a discussion of freedom and liberty. That can grate a little bit, as half the time I was fairly skeptical. But what is left is a compelling account of history and politics as seen through episodic explorations of great individuals who made a difference. It is an old-timey account from a man who was probably out of step with the times even when he was at his peak, and that has its charm. And, of course, the main lesson of the course is mostly centered on imparting some key elements of insight to people, to help nurture them as educated citizens in our republic. There's a lot to like. So while I sometimes struggle with the loose use of terminology and the occasional sweeping statements, its hard for me to dislike this course or what Rufus is trying to do. Indeed, part of me is cheering him on and wondering whether there are still men like Fears somewhere in the academy.

[elche_dimmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

While a learned some things from this series the lecturer, Professor Fears, made the entire experience almost unbearable. I muscled through all the way to the end though. I did not like the dramatic way that Fears would speak. Always at the end of each lecture he would start to speak slow and low (at certain points I would have to turn up my volume to hear what he was saying). I understand that history is dramatic, but this approach was infuriating me throughout.
I also noticed that, in all of the lecture series I have listened to, this was the first time it took nearly a full 2 to 3 minutes of the narrator (at the beginning of the lecture series [not the professor himself]) to talk through all of the professors credentials. It immediately threw me off and felt a bit pretentious. This sort of behavior from the professor ended up distracting me more than encourage me to learn about the topic.
I don't recommend this particular lecture series.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I ended up calling this my "yell at the car radio" audio book. The author comes from the "Great Men of History" theory and has an extreme western judeo/christian POV. While this isn't a deal breaker its always good to hear Points of View that are different than your own, this lecturer take it too an extreme and at times calls his opinions facts and then does little to support the claim.

I actually do agree with some of what he says but as a whole this lecture series is so far right that it probably tips over.

On the positive side, I was never tired on my way to work since yelling and arguing at a person that cant hear you really makes your heart pump.

[Enrico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great course about some lessons of history. The first and probably most important being that humans don't learn from history. The lecturer probably unknowingly gives a good example in that he uses the first 2/3 of the course to gather lessons from empires and superpowers throughout history only to use the last third to alternate between arguing that the US will follow these same paths and that it is unique in every way possible and won't. Isn't that the same hubris he is often talking about of thinking that you are the only exception?
Nevertheless or maybe because of this, the course was very entertaining and thought provoking.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve heard one Fears course, you’ve heard them all, but this Harvard-educated classical liberal and his stately, high-pitched southern accent = a good partner for the a.m. and p.m. commutes. As a historian, I believe the subject has little to teach us save for the errors made by men — it’s nothing but a record of the failures and deaths of notable people! — but I will say that JRF makes the case that there’s a higher wisdom to extract from historical study (though in the main, I’d say he agreed with me). The lectures vary widely in quality here, but the final two lectures — overviews of the topic — are quite good.

[Clifford Nelson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really extremely disappointed by this set of lectures. I thought is was very shallow and biased. For instance, onn and on about Stalin being such an evil man. There had to be reasons for this, but there is nothing revealed. And really what is the point of learning how evil Stalin is in understanding how to gain wisdeom from history. Part of it may be because we are still too close to World War II, or at least this professor was born in 1945 and could not see history of his time in an unbiased perspective. This could have just been a basic history course not one about how to learn from history.

[Benjamin Minor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Rufus Fears and his silly self - decent overview, very into the great person theory of history, which is always a fun take, gives the feel of mythos. His take on American history always makes me feel patriotic - you could say it’s too flattering, but it’s nice to occasionally explore a purely positive outlook

[Benjamin Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Great Courses because the narrators are real academics, not actors. So sometimes the narration isn't the smoothest, but you are at least listening to a real expert. But this narrator breaks the mold. Not only an expert in his field, but probably the best "story teller" I've come across in the Great Courses. I wish I could lecture so well to my students.

[Tamminh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive summary and thoughtful analysis of significant historical events, told by a master storyteller! The last chapter, on the application to my personal life, is worth reading, and pondering, over and over and over...