Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life

by J. Rufus Fears

Lecture Transcript and Course Guidebook

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Classics, Philosophy, Literature, Books About Books

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2005

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

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had watched this video course 10 years ago and had absolutely loved it. I would tell strangers how great it was. Rufus Fears was my epitome of wisdom and I wanted to know what he knew. If I could be just as wise, erudite, certain and well just as smart, I thought, I would be fixed for life. Well a funny thing happened in those proceeding 10 years, I started reading those books in this course on my own, listened to many different Great Course lectures and delved deeply into history, science and philosophy on my own, and now after having re-listened to this course, I realize that Fears is full of shit.

To wit, he’ll say a variation of each of these things in this lecture: Moses was most certainly a historical figure; universal values are real; wisdom requires suffering; there is absolute morality and evil is real; duty, honor, and responsibility are lacking today and we need to relearn those virtues.

Rufus Fears has a logos centric simplistic world view. By that expression, logos centric, it might not be obvious what I mean, but it relates to Derrida and how all of Western Philosophy up to before Nietzsche assumes the truth is out there and that there is such a thing as justice. Well I got news for my fellow truth seekers, just because we can ask a question such as ‘what is justice’, it doesn’t mean that justice actually exist, and when we put a label onto something, such as evil, it doesn’t mean that it necessarily exist either. (I’ll quote Steinbeck: ‘there is no virtue, there is no sin, there is just people doing things’).

Rufus Fears just knows the truth is out there and evil is real and universal values are the only kind of values worth having and we just don’t have the right virtues anymore. Oh, and btw, the Homeric war in the Iliad was a necessary ‘preemptive Middle East war’ and preemptive Middle East war is a good thing. I think every single lecture is full of crap with the exception of one. I do like the way he juxtaposed Pericles with Lincoln (please, please, do yourself a favor and read Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, you won’t regret it).

The first time I had watched this Course, I thought I wasn’t able to read the works on my own. I thought I needed a great story teller (and he is a great synoptic story teller) to filter the classics for me in order to understand. I was wrong. The first time I watched this I was overwhelmed by his presentation and didn’t realize his neoliberal conservative bias which actually tended toward an Arnold Toynbee type conservative/fascist view point for history. (Toynbee wrote the world’s most boring and some say longest English written work on a single subject and was a self professed conservative and feted by Hitler for a reason. As a joke sometime Google search ‘Toynbee conservepedia’ and see how he is worshiped by modern day conservatives/fascists. And for those who weren’t alive in the 1960s, Toynbee at one time was the end all be all of pipe smoking National Review reading faux intellectuals and be thankful you weren’t alive in those days. Be thankful you never read Saul Bellow’s ‘Humboldt’s Gift’ where his character longs for the days when people read Toynbee).

Rufus Fears does say one thing consistently that I agree with and that is we have to discover our own meaning for ourselves. If it takes a series of myopically presented lectures in order to light a fire in your belly by all means delve into these incredibly shallowly presented lectures. (BTW, I won’t hold his Dante lecture against him since one cannot in any way, shape or form present The Divine Comedy within a half hour lecture), and if you revisit this lecture series after 10 years and you feel exactly about them as you did the first time you watched them, perhaps you should be thankful that you didn’t grow one iota, or maybe you should question your certainties and expand your horizons.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was TERRIBLE!!!! I'd seen so many good reviews about this book, so I decided to buy the audio book, narrated by the author. This was worse than going to church! He has the classic "Fire and Damnation" Southern Baptist pulpit speech style, which I can't stand. But not only that, ALL the books he's chosen has one thing or another to do with a "higher power" SERIOUSLY!!!! If I would have known this was a Sunday school lecture in disguise, I wouldn't have wasted my money.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Kristi Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This course is about exploring the greatest books ever written that changed the world.
It also explains why they are great and how they affected those around them. Professor Fears is a great lecturer and always keeps things interesting. Each lecture is around a half hour each so great to listen to on your commute or when you have a short time to devote to the lecture.

The books per Prof. Fears are:
1. Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
2. Homer 's Illyiad
3. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
4. Bhagavad Gita
5. Exodus by Moses
6. The book of Mark in the New Testament
7. Koran
8. Gilgamesh
9. Beowolf
10. Job
11. Oresteia by Aeschylus
12. The Bacchae by Euripides
13. Phaedo by Plato
14. The Divine Comedy by Dante
15. Othello by W Shakespeare
16. Prometheus Bound
17. Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn
18. Julius Caesar by W Shakespeare
19. 1984 by George Orwell
20. The Aeneid by Virgil
21. Gettysburg Address by A Lincoln
22. Pericles Funeral Speech
23. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
24. Confucius
25. The Prince by Machiavelli
26. Plato's Republic
27. On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
28. Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Mallory
29. Faust Parts One and Two by Goethe
30. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
31. Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbons
32. Lord Acton's History of Liberty
33. On Duties by Cicero
34. Autobiography of Mohandas Gandhi
35. My Early Life, The Second World War series and Painting as a Pastime by Winston Churchill
The last lecture goes over the books quickly and talks about the lessons taught and that the best way to pursue knowledge is to open your minds and meditate on each book in order to let what the author is trying to tell you sink in.
I highly recommend this class. It opened up a whole new world to explore for me.

[Michael Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This course turned out to be a disappointment. I've listend to other courses by J. Rufus Fears, including his TGC courses "Famous Greeks", "Famous Romans" (both of which I rated as 5 stars), "The Wisdom of History" (4 stars), and enjoyed them immensely. But this course is filled with much of Fears' own views on Christianity and religion, skewing the historical importance of some of the books mentioned in the lectures. If you want to listen to a good series of lectures by Fears' (who is a a passionate and excellent lecturer, notwithstanding what I've said in this review) then I highly recommend one of the other series mentioned above over this one.

[Skylar Burris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best Teaching Company lectures series to which I have listened. Dr. Fears is a truly gifted lecturer, such that he uses the lecture almost as a performance art form. He does not conduct in-depth literary analysis of the works he discusses, but rather retells them with flourish and pinpoints their major themes, tracing these themes throughout the wide variety of great books he has selected and frequently linking back to previous books he has discussed. There is nothing dry in his approach to literature, which is a way of looking at the great books as existing not to be dissected for tropes and metaphors or analyzed through feminist, Marxist, or psychological lenses, but rather to be read and learned from, to be treated as the source of great truths. It is these truths he explores throughout the works, which stem from a variety of ages and cultures.

I do not quibble with his selections; there are certainly more books I wish he had covered, but none I did not enjoy learning about. He retells the works in such a way as to make them more understandable, more immediate – these are not dull summaries, and there are several I would listen to again.

I have read less than half of the books he discusses, but even when I had read a book, I found his retelling just as interesting as when I had not.

[Verena Wachnitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful audiobook that covers a vast selection of classical works of literature in an engaging and accessible way.

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another audio lecture series by The Teaching Company, which records some of the top professors in the country on audio and DVD (with an accompanying booklet) in order to make courses on a variety of topics accessible to anyone who is interested.

In Books That Have Made History, Professor J. Rufus Fears presents his picks of some of the most important writings in the world's history from the 3rd millennium B.C. to present. Professor Fears describes "great books" as those that offer wisdom and make you think about the meaning of life, death, morality/ethics, society, war and spirituality/religion. There is also a lot of focus on intellectual history.

Books/papers discussed are listed below in order of their respective lecture.

1. Bonhoeffer -- Letters and Papers From Prison
2. Homer -- Iliad
3. Marcus Aurelius -- Meditations
4. Bhagavad Gita
5. Book of Exodus
6. Gospel of Mark
7. Koran
8. Gilgamesh
9. Beowulf
10. Book of Job
11. Aeschylus -- Oresteia
12. Euripides -- Bacchae
13. Plato -- Phaedo
14. Dante -- The Divine Comedy
15. Shakespeare -- Othello, the Moor of Venice
16. Aeschylus -- Prometheus Bound
17. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn -- The Gulag Archipelago
18. Shakespeare -- Julius Caesar
19. George Orwell -- 1984
20. Virgil -- Aeneid
21. Pericles -- Orations; Lincoln -- Gettysburg Address
22. Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front
23. The Analects
24. Machiavelli -- The Prince
25. Plato -- Republic
26. John Stuart Mill -- On Liberty
27. Sir Thomas Malory -- Morte d'Arthur
28. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -- Faust, part 1
29. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -- Faust, part 2
30. Henry David Thoreau -- Walden
31. Gibbon -- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
32. Lord Acton -- The History of Freedom
33. Cicero -- On Moral Duties (De Officiis)
34: Gandhi -- An Autobiography
35: Churchill -- My Early Life; Painting as a Pastime; WWII

Some lectures were better than others, of course, though that could have been due to my interest or lack of interest in the particular book being discussed. I especially appreciated the summaries of books I have long been curious about, but am fairly certain I will never, ever read (e.g., Beowulf). The professor clearly had a passion for the topic, and was very enthusiastic in his presentation. I wasn't riveted, but overall it was an enjoyable listen.

[Suncerae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Rufus J Fears presents his top picks of Books That Have Made History: Books that Can Change your life in 37 30-minute lectures. The title is appropriate in that these are primarily historical works (only 3 from the 20th century). Prof Fears stipulates from the beginning that a great book, as he defines it, has 1) a theme, 2) noble language, 3) speaks across the ages, and in general, a great book "elevates your soul".

Most of the lectures consist of a summary of the book in question, so that Prof Fears spends little time on analysis. In fact, on the question of themes, he generally choose one theme per book. Themes of god, fate or chaos, ultimate evil, duty and morality dominate the chosen books, which I often felt significantly simplified the story in question. For example, Dante's Divine Comedy is, for Prof Fears, ultimately about redemption and God's true love. George Orwell's 1984 is ultimately about duty to one's government. For me, these books are so much more. Why must a book have only one enduring theme?

The second defining characteristic of a great book is beautiful language, but I can only recall in one case (Goethe's Faust) in which Prof Fears actually reads an excerpt from the book, in this case demonstrating the power of the language in its original German. Lastly, the works in question must be relevant to today. Many of the beginning lectures consisted of religious books, and their summaries were tedious at best. However, I must acquiesce that these ancient works of religion still speak to many people today, despite being the source for so many disputes and wars throughout the ages.

For all my nitpicking, these series of lectures did achieve their original goal - to encourage the audience (me) to read these books for themselves. I have read or at least studied about half of the books presented, and I am now eager to pick up Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and Churchill's 3 autobiographies, My Early Life, Painting as a Pastime, and WWII, among many others.

I would recommend this series of lectures for anyone interested in expanding their historical literature exposure, but these lectures serve only as introductions, and not substitutes for reading the real thing.

[Nicole Dunton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This audio book is more of a series of lectures than an actual novel. It talks about some of the books that have changed lives throughout history. Some of the greatest books ever written are included in this. All of the lectures are split up in thirty minute (or so) increments.

I really enjoyed these lectures. I'm ashamed of myself for not having read most of these. I now have them in quick access so I can read them in the immediate future. The lectures were all easy to follow. They were straight forward and to the point. I feel that a lot of view points I've learned in my life were analyzed and I was shown a new point of view. I love when these things happen. There's nothing better than having your beliefs and view points expanded, in my opinion.

Normally, I'd include a review of the narrator. I don't feel I can really do that in this case being as the narrator is a professor being recorded. I do have to say that I wish all professors could explain things like he could. He made things very easy to understand and relate to. Like I said earlier, I feel that things explained helped broaden my beliefs.

I fully recommend this audio book. I have now listened to three different Great Courses audio books. I've loved all three of them. I can't wait to dive into more audio books by Great Courses. I fully recommend they be looked up on Audible. They have a huge selection of subjects to get into.

[Mark D · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favorite Great Course so far.

Fears is a storyteller which did bring some of the books to life. However, the lecturers were very uneven. Some were primarily retelling the story of the book. Others were more about the author.

And his desire to compare went way overboard. "Jesus, Confucious, and Socrates all were on a lifelong search for truth." Really? I don't think even the most liberal reading of the Gospel of Mark (one of the books in the course) could lead someone to say Jesus was on a lifelong search for truth.

I read Gandhi's Autobiography a couple weeks before listening to this course. I was surprised to see it included. Fears highlighted some of the interesting parts of the book but ignored the very long sections about Gandhi's vegetarianism and discussions of his bowel movements. Is Gandhi someone worth knowing about? Of course. Is his autobiography a book that can change a westerner's life? Doubtful. (The west wasn't his audience.)

I listened to Fears' course on Churchill, which I enjoyed, but after this course, I doubt I'll seek out another one by Fears.

The course highlighted a few books that I plan to read, but overall, it's completely worth skipping.

[Brian Eshleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was actually a little overstimulating. It is hard to assimilate all of the great ideas Dr. Fears touched on in his series of 30 minute lectures. If you are under the conviction that you need to read more of the Great Books and don't know where to start, this is a good series for you, because his summaries can help you identify which works touch your soul right now.

SECOND READING: Some of these lectures can be a bit dry, but this professor's passion for his subject deserves to be commented upon. He certainly seems sincere in inviting the listener into these works.

[Darryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Fears is a story teller more than a lecturer. He relates the stories in and about these great books and keeps the listener enthralled. At the same time, he emphasizes the books' themes, some of which are opposed to others, but all pointing to universal moral truths. Very highly recommended.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professor J. Rufus Fears has several Great Courses available, the bulk of which cover Greek and Roman antiquity and its multitudes of philosophical texts. This course treads some of that ground but also dips as far as modern 20th century literature. The result is a collection of 36 erudite lectures, all of which cover a specific book and its themes.

Given the 30-minute time limit for each lecture, Fears (great professor name or greatest professor name?) does an impressive job of summarizing the contents of each book, though listeners with a more intimate knowledge of some of the texts will no doubt find themselves wishing that certain topics had been covered in greater detail or had been brought up at all. (for me, this was the omission of Marcus Aurelius’ definition of justice and treating people how they deserved to be treated in his seminal work, Meditations)

The through line of the lectures is what makes a book great. In Fears’ eyes, it is a great theme (duty, God, free will, etc.), noble language, and the ability to speak across the ages. These are certainly subjective barometers, and how each is measured is equally up for debate. I believe Fears knows this, and is why he stresses that the books in this series of lectures are ones which have spoken to him, and which continue to speak to him in different ways each time he comes back to them throughout the years.

Whether you’re familiar with some, all, or none of these books, Fears’ engaging oratory and retelling of each one rewards the attentive ear. The professor takes on the roles of the characters and slips between recounting the events and role playing them for the listener. The up and down tonal shifts of his voice make for a captivating experience, though I’m sure his voice isn’t for everyone. I’d suggest listening to a sample of the course to see if his style is for you.

I won’t spoil all of the books covered in this series, but I will give a sampling: 1984, All is Quiet on the Western Front, the Quran, the book of Exodus, The Iliad, Julius Caesar, Prometheus Bound. There are 35 books/texts (“The Gettysburg Address”) in total, and each is deserving of its place based on Fears’ parameters and summary.

The one glaring omission in this series is the total absence of any female authors. Every single writer is a man. A lot of this can be attributed to the time many of these texts were written in, as women simply weren’t allowed or did not have the possibility of writing in Ancient Greece, for example, but I feel Fears could have slipped in a Mary Shelley, Virginia Woolf, Harper Lee, Jane Austen, Gertrude Stein...anyone.

Maybe he just hasn’t read many female authors, which is a distinct possibility for a professor of Classics. Or he just doesn’t feel that A Room of One’s Own is as powerful or important as some of the books that did make the list. In either case, the chapter list made this point glaringly obvious.

Despite the lack of female authors, this is an excellent series of lectures. It inspired me to add a bunch of books to my to-read list, and provided a pleasurable walk down memory lane or new insights into the ones I was familiar with.

I would very much recommend this for truth seekers, and lovers of philosophy and literature. I will definitely be checking out more of professor Fears' work.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

i continue to plow through the 100 or so teaching company lectures i inherited from my late uncle. the TC was heavily reliant on this man, the late oklahoma professor rufus fears (1945-2012), and justifiably so. these aren't so much great lectures - there isn't much content packed into each one, and you can run them just fine at 2x or even 3x if you've got a player that will do that - as bravura displays of this harvard-educated southern dandy's engaging personality. sure, he's a conservative, "great man" sort of academic, and a winston churchill fanboy besides, but fears can truly fill a commute in the way that some shitty, chatter-heavy podcast cannot. i'm now tackling his "great myths" course, which also, like this course, isn't as good as his famous romans and famous greeks courses (understandable, given that they're further away from his area of specialization)

[Gabe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some potential. I think it was more of a quick summary of great books than anything else though. He had some cool thoughts, but I just found myself wanting to listen to it at faster and faster speeds just to get it over with, because there was never enough story to get into it, just enough to think, "huh, yeah that'd be a cool read.... it'd be so long and hard to understand... but cool" and then that segment was over.

[Amy Prosenjak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book info was great, professor narrator was annoying!

[Christabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one!

[Amanda Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting. I recognized some books and not others, but I learned so much.

[Sunil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful teaching series lectures, presented by Professor Fears is a monumental compendium of the most significant books written in human history. He qualifies his choices of the books on the following attributes - its theme, the noble language of the book, the universality and timelessness of what the book espouses ( mostly values) and finally the books that elevates the soul.

The series is broken into 30 lectures dealing with a book each ( hence perfect for short commutes). The presentation is commendable and passionate. I had little knowledge of some of the books ( Gilgamesh) , a few were religious texts ( Book of Exodus and Quran ) and a few very well known spiritual texts ( bhagvadgeetha and Gandhis autobiography)

The assortment is a brilliant primer to an emerging interface of history, psychology, philosophy and anthropology of our times. The books were delivered with great enthusiasm and passion. It made me wonder what impact the series would have had on me if I had come across at 12.

Professor Fears goes through all the thirty books without analysing them in detail or just simplifying them into a undergraduate essay. He weaves them with his eloquence, humour and a sense of wonder, jus enough for the reader to look more.

He concludes the series in the final chapter, identifying precisely what had running through my mind - of relevance, especially to our 21st century post-modern world.
His ending analysis is incisive. As Socrates had said centuries back - the great virtues of wisdom, bravery, moderation, duty, honesty, and justice are timeless and eternal. It is us in the postmodern world are losing their meaning and maybe with all the technological assault around, are unable to find the 'reflective time' to learn what they are.

Not all works and choices are perfect, but For its ambition, its taste, its value, and for its ability to introduce or incite interest in some of the invariably unknown or so called uninteresting books to our generation, the series of lectures deserve a five star.

In one word, inspiring! And I never use the word loosely.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Fears takes readers on a wondrous journey through the compelling messages of titles that can have a pivotal influence in the lives of those who read them. He begins by defining a great book as one having a great theme, as being written in noble language which elevates the soul, that speaks across ages and that possess universality. He further states that reading a great book means sitting with the book and allowing it to speak. It will only speak if we open our minds.
The titles explored include The Iliad by Homer, The Book of Job, Letters and Papers From Prison by Bonheoffer, The Prince by Machiavelli, The Republic by Plato, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon, My Early Life; Painting as a Pastime; WWII by Winston Churchill and All Quiet on the Western Front, by Remarque are often assigned to readers in their youth. Professor Fears states that at time in life there is little life experience in place to appreciate the richness and the history of the times portrayed in these titles. He artfully distills the message in each that is a challenge that if grasped will propel the reader on a quest to identify their values and bring the most to the world around them through their talents.
Listening to these 36 lectures on 18 CDs was like going back to school and really digesting the messages conveyed by the authors. Not only did I benefit from this listening experience, I was able to move back time when I first read many of them and crystallize the meaning now and back then when I was first introduced. If you have a long commute or if Audio is your preferred method of reading…do pick this one up! The information is very accessible to listeners.

[Becky Skillin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Justice, Moderation, and Courage — books that transform us are defined by those themes.

“Education is the digestion of knowledge into Wisdom—acts of meditation upon the patterns of life”

Considering truth

Make mistakes, never give up, every day you can begin again—whether you are Zeus or Thoreau

This is a book that should be digested slowly, but I listened to it at 1.5 speed on audio to get the ideas of books that I should have read but yet have not.

[Antonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read 1star reviews and some of those make lots of wrong assumptions about what Fears has said. He did not explicitly say that duty, honor and courage are missing today and that “we” have to relearn those values. These lectures are valuable in that they define accurately what a truly great book is. A great book should arouse good morality. But whose morality? The fact that the same themes are universal in the works he discusses points to possible evidence that aspiring to these values may help you be a better person. Wisdom, justice, courage and moderation are demonstrated qualities of thinkers who have benefited societies past and present. Why would you read them? Why not rely on the internet for all your information? Because your internet dabbling may not develop any wisdom within you. In fact, these days, exactly the opposite appears to be happening. Fears gives a reader a chance to research and read these timeless works. You may not agree with him that absolute evil or good exists, but his treatment of this question in a historical regard for these timeless works is valid.

[Conrad Wesselhoeft · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fears is an incredible teacher--passionate, articulate, and inspiring. Yes, he's a tad preachy. And yes, his list is very subjective. (Missing in action, for example, are "Don Quixote," "Pride and Prejudice," "War and Peace," "Huckleberry Finn," "Moby Dick," "The Federalist Papers," "The Pentagon Papers," and any sense of global diversity.)

However, his insights into the minds and writings of Homer, Cicero, Confucius, Solzhenitsyn, Socrates, Thoreau, Lincoln, Shakespeare, Gandhi, Orwell, and many more are fascinating and profound.

Fears is a philosophical historian--mindful of how the past can shed light on the present and guide us into the future. He is also a terrific storyteller. I wish I'd discovered him years ago.

(This book is a part of the Teaching Company's lecture series on audible.com. I also loved Fears' lectures called "The Wisdom of History" and "Churchill.")

[Oz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this from beginning to end. Thanks to Prof. Fears, now I have an appreciation for the general themes considered in these books. The closing chapters were very inspiring. I am especially looking forward to reading:

Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Oresteia by Aeschylus
Plato's Republic
Confucius
The Prince by Machiavelli
Painting as a Pastime by Winston Churchill

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this lecture series, but I am a Shakespeare scholar so when Fears gets the Shakespeare wrong, I have to wonder what else he got wrong.

[Laura Schrillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only problem with this course is that is added to my TBR. He is a great lecturer . I really enjoyed this course. I was especially intrigued by Cicero.

[Robert Vlach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vynikající výběr, který ukazuje, jak by se měla na školách přednášet literatura.

Ještě před pár lety měli mnozí z nás za to, že technologie, která nejvíce změní podobu knihy coby média, budou elektronické čtečky jako Kindle. Zatím to však vypadá, že největší proměnou kniha prochází v podobě audioknihy. Ty sice existovaly už dávno na deskách, později kazetách a CD, ale teprve nástup chytrých mobilů a masová distribuce po internetu přes servery jako Audible posunuly namluvené knihy do středu zájmu vydavatelů. Očekávané bestsellery (jako třeba detektivní pokračování The Silkworm od J. K. Rowling) tak dnes vychází rovnou i jako audioknihy.

Zároveň tedy stále více vydavatelů (či spíše producentů) experimentuje s formátem audioknihy jako takové. Objevují se prvotřídní dramatizace (při zachování textu knihy slovo od slova), ale také knihy s dramatickou podkresovou hudbou (v tom vyniká španělská produkce od FonoLibro) a také komponované výukové programy. Zdaleka nejlepší je v tomto ohledu produkce The Great Courses, která představuje špičkové světové akademiky, vědce a intelektuály v dlouhých sériích tematických audiopřednášek, připravených speciálně pro čtenáře audioknih, včetně textové přílohy.

Příkladem budiž seminář Your Deceptive Mind o kritickém myšlení od überskeptika prof. Stevena Novelly, který je (jen tak mimochodem) mnohem lepší než opěvované, avšak nudné Kahnemanovo dílo Myšlení, rychlé a pomalé. Tam kde se Kahneman točí v sáhodlouhých popisech experimentů a vlastních myšlenkových pochodů, je Novella chirurgicky přesný, střídmý, míří k podstatě a je zábavný do té míry, že se od jeho přednesu nedokážete odtrhnout. Ovšemže bez ztráty odborné úrovně, prostě borec.

Nyní jsem doposlouchal další výjimečný program stejného vydavatele s názvem Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (Knihy, které psaly historii a mohou změnit váš život). Uznávám, že druhá část názvu zní dost pitomě, ale naštěstí je pouze klíčem, který přednášející prof. Rufus J. Fears použil k výběru. Velkou knihu zde definuje jako dílo, které mělo významný dopad a zároveň je v něm něco, co k nám promlouvá napříč staletími dodnes, ergo co může změnit náš život. Tolik suchý úvod, ale tím není řečeno to podstatné!

Fearsův knižní výběr i celkový přednes je totiž jedním slovem geniální. Nikdy jsem neslyšel nikoho přednášet takovýmto způsobem a garantuji vám, že když bude Rufus rozebírat dávno minulá díla antická, představovat jednotlivé postavy, měnit hlas a předvádět klíčové dialogy, vyvstane před vámi obraz knihy živější než kniha sama.

Fears není herec, ale profesor historie, přesto má něco, co školený herec nikdy mít nebude — hluboký vhled do literární historie a schopnost spojovat za běhu souvislosti do ohromujícího celku, kdy před vámi najednou, během několika hodin, vystaví literární korpus, na jehož základě stojí (a padá) naše civilizace. To je také hlubší podtext Fearsova semináře, že totiž velké knihy minulosti nejsou mrtvými epizodami, ale svítícími majáky, které navádějí mořeplavce mysli dodnes. Adolf Hitler měl na nočním stolku Machiavelliho Vladaře coby pohádku na večer a knížku z nejmilejších, divíte se? Velké knihy povstávají z Fearsovy přehlídky coby titáni zápolící napříč věky o vládu na lidskou myslí a dějinami.

Brilantní, mocné a nezapomenutelné! Doporučuji a rozhodně se chystám na poslech dalších Fearsových seminářů, zejména těch o Churchillovi a Římské politice. Pro zajímavost připojuji z přílohy úplný seznam knih, které Books That Have Made History zahrnuje, včetně dohledaných překladů:

Bonhoeffer: Letters and Papers From Prison [Listy z vězení]
Homer: Iliad [Ilias]
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations [Hovory k sobě]
Bhagavad Gita [Bhagavadgíta]
Book of Exodus [Exodus]
Gospel of Mark [Evangelium podle Marka]
Koran [Korán]
Gilgamesh [Epos o Gilgamešovi]
Beowulf [Béowulf]
Book of Job [Kniha Jób]
Aeschylus: Oresteia [Oresteia]
Euripides: Bacchae [Bakchantky]
Plato: Phaedo [Faidón]
Dante: The Divine Comedy [Božská komedie]
Shakespeare: Othello [Othello]
Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound [Upoutaný Prométheus]
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Gulag Archipelago [Souostroví Gulag]
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar [Julius Caesar]
George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four [1984]
Vergil: Aeneid [Aeneis]
Pericles: Oration [Periklova smuteční řeč]
Lincoln: Gettysburg Address [projev u Gettysburgu]
Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front [Na západní frontě klid]
Confucius: The Analects [Hovory]
Machiavelli: The Prince [Vladař]
Plato: Republic [Ústava]
John Stuart Mill: On Liberty [O svobodě]
Sir Thomas Malory: Morte d’Arthur [Artušova smrt]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust, Part 1 [Faust. 1. díl tragédie]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust, Part 2 [Faust. 2. díl tragédie]
Henry David Thoreau: Walden [Walden aneb Život v lesích]
Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Úpadek a pád římské říše]
Lord Acton: The History of Freedom
Cicero: On Moral Duties [O povinnostech]
Gandhi: The Story of My Experiments with Truth [Můj život]
Churchill: The Second World War [Druhá světová válka], My Early Life, Painting as a Pastime

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life by Rufus Fears is a lecture series designed to instill in its audience a set of virtues and a particular outlook on life, one that is oriented towards the real world and not the academy. Indeed, Fears has an anti-academic bias throughout the series. Though this work is ostensibly about books, what we are treated to is a 30 minute snapshot of the author, a summary/retelling of the work done in a way that is meant to appeal to the audience (sometimes to the point of oversimplifying and even misrepresenting the text), and to interweave the literary canon into one another and tease out articles of truth. Fears is, by definition, an interested party. There are times where he sees the need to defend his choice to include non-Western authors, and goes out of his way to note parallels, some obvious, others tortured, with Western sources. Confucius had this the worst. When one rewinds the clock to when Fears received his PhD, when one notes that he was a teacher in Oklahoma, and that this series was geared towards lifelong learners in the hour of their retirement, his proactive defense is understandable, though it will alienate those who are already familiar with the works.

I like the late Rufus Fears. He is a man who takes pride in dignity, truth, wisdom, and humanity. I'm sympathetic to that. But he is also a frustrating man. Potshots at academia, an interest in conveying what he feels is important from the texts colored through his own idiosyncrasies, and his embrace of values that exist beyond the individual and of society color his understanding of these texts, and thus our learning through him.

It is never a good idea to read other people's views when seeking to convey your own thoughts on a particular work. Their views often color your own understanding, and in some ways your review becomes something of a reaction to others. That is, it will be a conversation where the reader is exposed to only one half of the content. So, I try not to read others until after I have written my own. I did not do so this morning.

There's a reviewer who loved Rufus' lectures a decade ago, but who now despises him and considers his work neoliberal and perhaps even fascistic. That, to me, is the height of being uncharitable. Rufus is a conservative. You can gleam this from his lectures, but it was made explicit for me just a week ago when I saw him give a talk in defense of George W Bush shortly before his death. It is clear that this political bent influences his work. That should be no surprise. I tend to enjoy having competing points of view when taking a look at a subject, so it is instructive for me to compare a Fears to the more liberal offerings at the Teaching Company, and the far more progressive influences in my life. Is it neoliberal? Well if you torture this series long enough, you'll find some passages that support that idea. Is it fascist? Absolutely not.

There is a great irony though. That reviewer who loved Fears, who encouraged others to watch his lectures and to pursue further study, eventually outgrew him. He read the classics, he developed his own opinions, and as a much older person thought to reflect upon the series that helped spark his interest. Though he found the experience distasteful, it would be remiss not to take into consideration that he did the very thing Fears encouraged him to do. One wonders how often people outgrow the teachers of their youth and find fault in their instruction.

It is the common critique of the scholar to disregard another by considering them a mere "storyteller." Yet, that is exactly what Rufus was. He was a very gifted storyteller who sought to speak to truths beyond people and to convey to those who listened to them something akin to wisdom, though he knew that true wisdom is something one will only learn in the process of enduring hardships in their life. By speaking to truths beyond the texts he was covering, he turned his subject into a vehicle for a broader project, one designed to influence his audience in a way that Fears likely viewed to be towards their improvement and betterment. The more sympathetic you are to that mission, the more you will like this series. The more you are in need for the distillation of greater truths through literature, the more you stand to benefit. But, for those who wanted a sober retelling of the books themselves, this series will be frustrating. And the further you are from appreciating the values and truths Rufus held dear, the less enjoyable you will find the course.

It is clear by now that Fears was more interested in distilling and conveying the ways in which these books could change your life than he ever was in the books themselves. This meant his value judgments on what would change your life for the better permeates every lecture in this series. For some in the audience, that is a crime for which Fears can never be forgiven.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Be warned, this is not objective - some of these are recognized as great or at least impactful. Some are not (he even has one of his own books in here, an edited collection of Lord Acton’s notes). The first two thirds are less about the books than his derivations, distillation, filtering. Less about the books than his colored (discolored?) perspective. Now, the last third he spent a good deal on the books contents.

His bias is obvious (includes some bible books). He thinks Moses was real. He also thought Arthur (as in King) was real. In the discussion of Confucius (Analects), he says Confucius, Socrates and Jesus are the three greatest teachers ever and that they all sought the truth. Socrates and Confucius stated so. The followers of Jesus made it clear he wasn’t seeking truth - he stated his truths (and neither Socrates nor Confucius claimed to be the son of a god, or that the only way anyone could find the truth was through them.) So he projects… when talking of ancient writers, he’ll say something about their belief in “god”, singular, or “heaven” when that was not a concept used by them (the projection is heaven onto afterlife).

He likes the word “absolute”, even for things that aren’t. Uses it a lot.

Contracts himself - says both Julius Caesar and Augustus were the greatest statesmen in history. Though later he says Julius was the greatest person and Augustus the greatest statesman (and even later that Churchill was the greatest person…) Says Desdemona in Othello was the wife of a senator (later does says she was a daughter of one) and though that might of been an uncaught slip, he followed that with calling her a trophy wife… before she elopes with Othello.

Says in the comparison of Pericles to Lincoln’s Gettysburg address that 618,222 Americans died in the American Civil War. Actually, 360,222 Americans died. 280,000 Confederates also died. And says in the Lord Acton lecture that Robert E. Lee was a great man who was against slavery and only fought because he thought the Republic would trample the individual. Newsflash, Lee was very much in favor of slavery, held the Africans in low regard as subhumans, and was definitely fighting to keep that status quo.

Am I nitpicking? Maybe. But I will give Fears this: when he focuses on the book at hand and summarizes, he does it quite well and entertainingly. And I am going to read Aurelius, Cicero, Churchill’s Painting as a Pastime, and likely the first volume of Gibbon’s Decline/Fall of the Roman Empire because it is lauded as one of the finest English language prose examples.

Snippets:

“Mythology is the means to convey a higher truth”

“Homer would agree with the Bible that fear of the gods is the beginning of wisdom” WTF??

“Greeks believed that only through suffering did we gain wisdom”

Check Virgil and Socrates immortality of soul

“Honor can only exist in an age which takes the duel seriously.”