bradleyburr's review

3.0

This was an interesting view of the underclasses of antiquity. It was about the common people not the leaders of history.

crystalmethany's review

3.75
adventurous informative medium-paced

alliebob74's review

4.5
informative
kimlikesbooks's profile picture

kimlikesbooks's review

3.5
informative reflective medium-paced
nathanielgale's profile picture

nathanielgale's review

4.5
informative reflective slow-paced
susanbrooks's profile picture

susanbrooks's review

4.0

Fascinating history. The presentation was a bit dry "if you were a slave in Greece, you would... ". The breadth of material, the etymologies woven in and the professo's passion made it enjoyable!

electricswanbite's review

5.0

I love this lecture series and I want to give Robert Garland a big hug for being so flippin endearing.

Reading the other reviews, I agree with most of what people say (even sometimes the criticism) but I also want to add how great this was to listen to as a feminist. History is frustrating because you've got two layers of patriarchy to get through: the time itself, which didn't empower or record women's stories, and the modern era, which overlooks the few that do emerge and data anomalies. Garland makes an effort to really talk about what it was like being a woman in so many different societies, and it was awesome! Not just a rich woman, but a peasant, a nun, you name it. It's common for historians and anthropologists to employ strong cultural relativism, but his storytelling-style leaves room for him to say "Imagine you are a woman in Ancient Greece. Your life is probably pretty awful." It feels a lot more honest, hearing these assessments, even if I don't always agree with his views.

zimmerlemon's review

3.75
informative

Solid! Hard with a field like this where the whole premise is that we don’t know much lol but it was a good time for my commutes 
jiayuanc's profile picture

jiayuanc's review

4.5
hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

Excellent course looking at the lives of "normal" people throughout Roman, Greek, Persian, Ancient Egyptian, Anglo Saxon, Norman, Celtic historical world. There is a bit dated talk (at some point Prof Garland says baby girls are still tossed aside for being girls in "modern" China, which may have been true at the time the course was presented but certainly isn't true in any majority anymore) but otherwise I really enjoyed this course and looked forward to each new lecture. Taking this look at the "normal" lives of people was truly eye opening. Human beings have always been this way, and it's moving to see artifacts like children's toys being similar across all cultures. 
and_im_ash's profile picture

and_im_ash's review

5.0
informative reflective slow-paced

I really enjoyed this lecture series. Robert Garland's delivery and content was engaging and I found myself eager to continue. 

This was a great overview of the history of average people in ancient times. I learned a lot about how people's day-to-day would have been like. I especially enjoyed the lectures focussing on women's lives in the different eras.

Overall, I found this really interesting and would love to check out more work by Robert Garland.