Robert Bucholz

This is one of the best Teaching Company courses ever. Bucholz is a fluid speaker, who occasionally stumbles over his script but quickly recovers. He is very easy to listen to, and his concise descriptions of events such as the Thirty Years War and the French Revolution are the clearest I have heard. Notably, he knowledgeably weaves literature, poetry, and even brief discussions of composers throughout the course, giving art its due along with tales of statesmen, politicians, generals, soldiers, and ordinary people (the best kind of people of all, of course). He also has a good grasp of the scientific advances that had such an effect on the varying rates of development across Europe. And he doesn't gloss over the horrors of the slave trade and other less than noble practices of Europeans. (And this is a course about Europe. America appears only in its relationship and influence on Europe.) Very very well done.… (más)

This audio course covers the history of the city from early settlement (there wasn't much there before Roman times) until the present. In each era the professor presents the historical events that played out in London, describes the physical appearance of the city, and compares the living conditions of different classes of residents. Several times during the course, he takes us on walking tours of the city from the perspectives of authors like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Pepys, Johnson and Dickens. The lectures were tied together well, with that literary thread running throughout.

I liked the walking tours, because they helped me visualize locations, but that would naturally have worked much better in the DVD version, with maps. I hadn't realized how frequently Londoners and the reigning monarch were incompatible with each other, and was surprised to learn that much of the current pageantry connected with royalty only originated in Victorian times. As usual, I got a bit bogged down in the 17th and 18th centuries, but I'm gradually working out how various events fit together. I had no problem at all keeping things straight in all the other eras.

The professor's enthusiasm kept the lectures fresh, although occasionally he did sound a little too fanboyish. While he did a good job of balancing the positives and the negatives, you could still tell that he is a dedicated Anglophile. His singing and impressions were not highlights of the course, but fortunately those were rare. A funny little note was that a few times I thought he was quoting someone named "Buckles". It took me awhile to realize that Buckles=Bucholz.

I came away with a stronger sense of what fits where in English history, and a feeling of time well spent.… (más)