This course of 48 lectures explores the essential contours of the human experience in what has come to be called "Western civilization." From its humble beginnings in the ancient Near East to the dawn of the modern world, these presentations cover developments from about 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1600. (THIS IS A SET. Book and DVDs must be checkout together)

This six part series explores the influence on ancient culture on our lives today. Host Michael Wood visits the ancient cities and great ports of India and China, the deserts of Egypt and Iraq, the Mexico of the Inca, Aztec and Mayan peoples, the Greek and Roman monuments of Europe and the jungles of Central America searching for the living legacies of these once great civilizations. The series traces how the institutions that arose with urban civilization...

Professor Richard Baum, University of California, Los Angeles, delivers 48 lectures on the history of China. (THIS IS A SET. Book and DVDs must be checkout together)

Join popular Egyptologist Bob Brier for a 24-lecture guide to reading, writing, and translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Lectures are 30 min. each.

This course of 36 lectures provides a general introduction to Africa south of the Sahara Desert and to its history.

"Africa's Great Civilizations In his six-hour series, Africa's Great Civilizations, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes a new look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century. This is a breathtaking and personal journey through two hundred thousand years of history, from the origins, on the African continent, of art, writing, and civilization itself, through the millennia in which Africa and Africans shaped not only...

Narrated by award-winning actor Paul Sorvino and broadcast on public television, Brava Italia tours la bella Italia from the streets to the skies, bustling cities to peaceful hill towns, and snowcapped Alps to sun-kissed shores.

In The Celtic World, discover the incredible story of the Celtic-speaking peoples, whose art, language, and culture once spread from Ireland to Austria. This series of 24 lectures explains the traditional historical view of who the Celts were, then contrasts it with brand-new evidence from DNA analysis and archeology that changes our perspective on where the Celts came from. European history and culture have been profoundly affected by the Celts,...

(THIS IS A SET. Book and DVDs must be checkout together)

Having lived as mobile foragers for 99 percent of our time on Earth, how and why did humans set out on the road to civilization? How did they create villages, towns, cities and states, and establish the blueprint for the modern world? Explore the seedbed civilizations of Mesoamerica, the Middle East, and the Indus Valley in this global story.