36 Books That Changed the World

By: The Great Courses, Brad S. Gregory, Charles Kimball, Daniel N. Robinson, Jerry Z. Muller, John E. Finn, Andrew R. Wilson

Narrated by: Andrew R. Wilson, Brad S. Gregory, Charles Kimball, Daniel N. Robinson, Jerry Z. Muller, John E. Finn

Certain works of literature, history, science, philosophy, political theory and religion offer powerful examples of how books can spark revolutions, birth great religions, spur scientific advancements, shape world economies, teach us new ways of thinking, and much more. And with this fascinating collection crafted from our extensive library of courses, you can now get a single course that represents 36 of our best lectures on literary works that changed the world.

In the company of an unparalleled roster of award-winning professors from a range of disciplines, you'll get fresh perspectives on books you only thought you knew - and intriguing introductions to some works you may not have known played key roles in getting us to where we are today. These include The Analects, the Liber Abaci, A Dictionary of the English Language, The Jungle, The Feminine Mystique, and more.

If you've taken another course with these professors before, get a reminder of just why you enjoyed them. And if you've never heard some of them before, who knows? You may just discover your next favorite Great Courses professor. More than that, you'll rediscover just how powerful the printed word can be. You'll also learn how the mark of a truly great book isn't that it just changes the lives of individual readers-but the lives of entire civilizations.

©2014 The Great Courses (P)2014 The Teaching Company, LLC

Great course, good food for the intellectual mind.

It is a great course, helps learn about the origins of literature and some of the other great ideas and writings that we have in our society today.

really good to know! makes you want to read more

some of these books are never mentioned today, so it's definitely useful to learn what else is out there scattered through the centuries of human civilization.

Informative and Educational

I liked the variety of books covered in this course. The lectures were well done.

Informing my new reading list

Interesting and extremely informative, this course will be my guide to reading most, if not all of the featured books discussed in this lecture series.

Always a great course to go back to.

Because of the great range of topics and fantastic set of authors, this is a course that you can start at any point. Each of the books is unique and each lecture is self-contained and complete. Highly recommend this course.