Catalog Search Results
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Examine the ways Stalin sought to exercise complete control of the Soviet economy, focusing on his Five-Year Plan for production—an object lesson in the complexities of anticipating and satisfying the material needs of a society. Professor Stuart also gives you an eye-opening look at the ways economics and politics can feed off of one another. Or, in this case, starve each other.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Using Slovenia as a model, explore some of the crucial questions concerning the evolution of world economies. Are economies becoming more similar? Or are they diverging? Is there even a clear-cut answer? The issues and debates that opened the course come full circle here; definitive answers remain elusive, but the tools provided open up a world of possibilities.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Although traders had traveled the Silk Road since the Roman Empire, there was little awareness of what existed at the other--until Marco Polo's accounts of China opened Europeans' eyes to a mysterious, advanced civilization. Start with background on the medieval world, then look closely at Polo's travels and legacy.
244) History's Greatest Voyages of Exploration: Episode 20,Dr. Livingstone and Mary Kingsley in Africa
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
First, consider how the most famous PR stunt in the history of exploration--journalist Henry Stanley finding ailing Scottish explorer Dr. Livingstone in a remote town in Africa--reveals how Africa long remained the "Dark Continent" to the outside world. Then, turn to Mary Kingsley, an Englishwoman whose writing revealed West Africa to a European audience.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Understand the complexities of Christopher Columbus who, in stumbling upon the Americas while attempting to reach Asia by heading West, touched off the massive Columbian Exchange of peoples, plants, commodities, and diseases. Dispel enduring myths, and explore Columbus's religious motives for launching what he called "The Enterprise of the Indies."
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Who was first to make it to the North Pole? Wade into the debate while examining the fascinating but lesser-known moments and figures of the race, including pilot Umberto Nobile flying a hydrogen-filled semi-rigid airship over the Pole in 1926, then crashing on a second trip, unleashing an international rescue operation.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Why have humans ventured beyond Earth? Does the future of space exploration lie with commercial interests? Is humanity's future in space? Consider these questions as you consider the past, present, and future of space exploration, starting with the moment Apollo 8's astronauts first witnessed earthrise on Christmas Eve 1968.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Despite attempts by some Soviet leaders in the mid-to-late 20th century, Russia was never able to successfully reform the oppressive and increasingly inefficient Soviet communist system. Professor Stuart shows how the authoritarian government encouraged dysfunctional behavior in production and why the resulting scarcity of decent goods and services ultimately became unsupportable.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Begin your study journey with the Vivaldi brothers' ill-fated journey to India. What drove the brothers--or drives any explorer--to take a risk and venture into the unknown? Consider that question as you look at theories on how the Pacific islands became populated starting with an epic movement 7,000 years ago.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
After World War II, the Allied powers were divided by their economic policies, resulting in a divided Europe. Examine the ways Soviet Russia dominated the nations of Eastern Europe, bringing them under the umbrella of authoritarian communism, and which nations pushed back against this takeover. In contrast, also look at Western policies and institutions put in place to rebuild Europe.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
In retrospect, it would seem that communism in Eastern Europe was doomed to fail. However, when the communist governments began to collapse in the 1980s, it took many people in the West by surprise. Trace the ways Soviet communism's failures were replicated over and over again in the Eastern Bloc nations, with nearly the same results for each of them.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Discover awe-inspiring tales of the world's most influential explorers. From ancient wayfarers to modern astronauts, intrepid individuals bound the continents together, connected isolated peoples, and sparked a cross-fertilization of ideas. Follow history's adventurers to the frozen Poles, Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, the ocean's depths, and the final frontier of space.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Now, focus on the race to the South Pole and the bitter rivalries surrounding it. Witness how Norwegian Roald Amundsen outdistanced his rival, English explorer Captain Robert Scott, whose return voyage took a tragic turn. Then, follow the hardships of British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, whose expedition to cross the punishing Antarctic also met disaster.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Take a breathtaking look at a historic descent into the deepest place on earth--the Mariana Trench in the Pacific--by Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh. But first, discover some of the highlights of ocean exploration in the centuries before this 1960 expedition.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Travel to the birthplace of industrial capitalism: Great Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. A fortuitous meeting of politics, technology, and economics would shape the future and give the world innovations like insurance and extended payment systems. It would also inspire writers like Charles Dickens to reveal the horrifying social repercussions of unregulated industrialization.
256) History's Greatest Voyages of Exploration: Episode 2,The Scientific Voyage of Pytheas the Greek
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Meet the originator of scientific exploration, who trekked to the edge of the world so that he could see for himself what was there. Put Pytheas the Greek in the context of his time and place, sketching the Mediterranean as a cradle of civilization and examining how word of his voyage influenced later exploration.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Called "The Third Way" by some economists, the economic system of Sweden is perhaps the best example of a philosophy that falls between the extremes of free market capitalism and government-controlled socialism. Professor Stuart explains the many factors that have contributed to Sweden's relative economic success and what it can teach us about mixed economies.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
The end of World War I illustrates one of the iron laws of capitalism: upheavals in one part of the world have repercussions all around it. Understand how the Treaty of Versailles set up harsh terms for a depleted Germany and why shortsighted leadership from the Allied powers led to economic fallout and, eventually, the second World War.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
The opportunities and innovations of capitalism in the US did not come without a cost. Religious and political thinkers alike turned to new solutions to alleviate the often horrible conditions many workers experienced, resulting in socialist projects that fell into two camps: utopian and scientific. Close with a look at the difficulties in running socialist systems in a largely market economy.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
In the wake of economic and social turmoil in the 19th century, some European countries sought to reform the capitalist system and make it more sustainable. Examine the different motives behind the reforms, understand the differences between public and private goods, and compare and contrast the myriad ways economies can blend capitalism and socialism.
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