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Not Sure Which Course to Start With?

Don’t know which Great Courses to start with? Below, you’ll find some of our most popular courses in each of our fascinating subject categories. They’re the perfect way to start your adventures in lifelong learning.

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  • Ancient Empires before Alexander sale
    Quick Look
    Ancient Empires before Alexander Professor Robert L. Dise Jr. Save up to $275
  • Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft sale
    Quick Look
    Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft Professor Brooks Landon Save up to $185
  • Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition sale
    Quick Look
    Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition Professor Michael Starbird Save up to $185
  • Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World sale
    Quick Look
    Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World Professor Benjamin Schumacher Save up to $185
  • American Civil War sale
    Quick Look
    American Civil War Professor Gary W. Gallagher Save up to $390
  • The Catholic Church: A History sale
    Quick Look
    The Catholic Church: A History Professor William R. Cook Save up to $275
  • Ancient Empires before Alexander sale Save up to $275
Ancient Empires before Alexander
Professor Robert L. Dise Jr.

Ancient Empires before Alexander is your opportunity to finally complete your knowledge of the ancient world with a comprehensive look at history's first empires: Akkad, Assyria, Babylon, Hatti, Carthage, and more. Professor Robert L. Dise Jr. examines these fascinating kingdoms as they endure the struggles, successes, and failures of establishing an empire. In 36 fascinating lectures, follow these thrilling realms as they rise to glory, establish administrative and military systems, clash with one another, and eventually collapse. Spanning thousands of years of human history and encompassing regions both familiar and forgotten, this course is an unforgettable way to explore the legacies of the world's earliest empires—in all their marvelous diversity.
  • Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft sale Save up to $185
Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft
Professor Brooks Landon

Investigate the myriad ways we think about, talk about, and write sentences. In Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft, Professor Brooks Landon from the University of Iowa—one of the nation's top writing schools—shows you the pleasure in reading and writing great sentences. Explore the stylistic rewards (and risks) of various sentence forms, learn how to build and appreciate effective and elegant sentences, get unique insights into the nature of great writing—and discover how you can achieve some of this greatness yourself.
  • Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition sale Save up to $185
Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition
Professor Michael Starbird

Calculus has had a notorious reputation for being difficult to understand, but the 24 lectures of Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear are crafted to make the key concepts and triumphs of this field accessible to non-mathematicians. This course teaches you how to grasp the power and beauty of calculus without the technical background traditionally required in calculus courses. Follow award-winning Professor Michael Starbird as he takes you through derivatives and integrals—the two concepts that serve as the foundation for all of calculus. As you investigate the field’s intellectual development, your appreciation of its inner workings and your skill in seeing how it can solve a variety of problems will deepen.
  • Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World sale Save up to $185
Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World
Professor Benjamin Schumacher

Quantum mechanics gives us a picture of the world so radically counterintuitive that it has changed our perspective on reality itself. In Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World, award-winning Professor Benjamin Schumacher gives you the logical tools to grasp the paradoxes and astonishing insights of this field. Designed specifically for nonscientists, these 24 lectures reveal breathtaking discoveries that are helping us unlock the secrets of the universe.
  • American Civil War sale Save up to $390
American Civil War
Professor Gary W. Gallagher

Many TV shows have dealt with the American Civil War, but not one offers the combination of crisp, comprehensive narrative and in-depth analysis that you will find in this course. In 48 masterful lectures, leading Civil War historian Professor Gary W. Gallagher explains both the strategy and battles of the war as well as its effects on all Americans. You'll learn how armies were recruited, equipped, and trained. You'll learn about the hard lot of prisoners. And you'll hear how soldiers on both sides dealt with the rigors of camp life, campaigns, and the terror of combat.
  • The Catholic Church: A History sale Save up to $275
The Catholic Church: A History
Professor William R. Cook

Explore the vast and fascinating history of one of the most influential institutions in the world with The Catholic Church: A History. In 36 informative and engaging lectures, follow the development of this powerful religious force throughout the centuries and witness its ability to move armies, inspire saints, and shape the lives and spirits of its more than 1 billion members. With noted historian and Professor William R. Cook, you'll quickly realize why no understanding of Western civilization is complete without an understanding of the Catholic Church.
  • Ancient Empires before Alexander SALE
  • Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft SALE
  • Change and Motion: Calculus Made Clear, 2nd Edition SALE
  • Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World SALE
  • American Civil War SALE
  • The Catholic Church: A History SALE
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