Intro to Ancient Greek History

Very nice semester-long series of lectures on Ancient Greek History by Donald Kagan (books) at Yale. He's a good speaker and gives an interesting overview of Greece from the Bronze Age down through the rise of Macedon. Some of you may know Kagan as a frequent writer and commentator of contemporary military/geopolitical affairs (articles). This makes listening even more interesting because one is always wondering how his views of the present are influencing his interpretation of the past as well as the opposite. He's very interested in warfare and political relations and this comes through in his lectures. He frequently makes analogies to the first and second world wars but tends to shy away from the more urgent Middle East analogies. At one point though, he does get a bit mixed up and refers to the US attack on Afghanistan and Persia, catches himself and then explains he was thinking about the Greeks. Hmmm....Persia, Iran, Greeks, Americans....

Intro to Ancient Greek History (need iTunes to load)