Teaching Company

Twelve lectures (30 min. each) that discuss the history of the development of Western scientific medicine, set against character studies of twelve of the greatest physicians since classical times.

12 lectures about probability delivered by Michael Starbird, professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Teofilo F. Ruiz gives a series of lectures on the history of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, who united the country, took power from the Moors, gave aid to Columbus, ordered the expulsion or conversion of Jews and Moors, and built the framework for modern Spain.

Professor Spurgin, of Lawrence University, traces the novel from its beginnings in the 18th century, when Samuel Richardson penned Pamela, to its culmination in the work of the 20th century Modernists, including Lawrence, Joyce, and Woolf. He also relates plots and characters of particular novels to larger movements in English history. By placing more than two centuries of great English novelists in the context of British history, Professor Spurgin...

The development of the arts in Europe from the Middle Ages to the modern era is an astonishing record of cultural achievement, from the breathtaking architecture of Gothic cathedrals to the daring visual experiments of the Cubist painters. We all have our favorite artists, periods, or styles from this immensely rich tradition, but how many of us truly know the full sweep of European art? How many of us can connect the dots of influences and inspiration...

The body is a fortress under constant assault. It faces threats from infectious diseases, parasites, allergens, environmental toxins, physical trauma, and natural disasters from without, to overzealous allergic, immune, and inflammatory responses, and cellular mutations from within. This course is an introduction to the field of pathophysiology--the study of the disruptions in a normal body's functions caused by disease or injury. Beginning with...

Presents lectures (each 30 minutes in length) by Michael Starbird, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin. Presents a collection of topics that reveal the rich, wondrous structure of what we see around us. Patterns in nature are the source of our geometrical understanding of the world. Abstracting those patterns leads to concepts from classical geometry. Extensions of those and other ideas of form have created a landscape of...

This course of 36 lectures provides a general introduction to the diplomatic history of Europe.

Professor Harl begins during the Bronze Age and the emergence of urban-based literate civilizations and carries the story forward until the demise of Persia's great empire at the hands of the Greeks, who embraced many of the achievements of these Near East civilizations but clearly represented a different kind of civilization, built on different institutions. Along the way, he examines advances like the invention and evolution of writing; the development...