Very informative and enjoyable.

Clear narration that keeps you interested and entertained whilst rich in knowledge and detail. These lectures have clarified areas I had thought about previously and challenged areas I thought I was certain on before. Time well spent.

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Excellent

A rare objective scholarly and comprehensive review of ancient empires history. Excellent in depth analysis from Sumer to Rome!

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Is this the teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off?

I have listened to over 150 of The Great Courses and this is the first where I have found cause to complain about the selection of teacher. I mean no personal offence against Prof. Dise – he certainly knows his stuff – however, the format here is audio, and with audio comes the opportunity to bring subject matter to life in a way written material cannot imitate. Prof. Dise fails to capitalise on the advantages of the format.

What this sounds like is Prof. Dise reading verbatim from a pre-written text. He sounds bored, monotone and delivers fact after fact with no landmark points of sparkling delivery or memorable syntax that might help the listener conjure an image lasting more than a few seconds. In fact, I struggled to conjure any images whatsoever beyond the parts of the course that covered matter with which I already had a degree of familiarity and so also had imagery pre-formed.

On the spectrum of Great Courses lecturers where I put Robert Greenberg's music courses as THE most lively and engaging, Prof. Dise now occupies the new nadir. This course was so dull I believe it would actually put off anyone for whom this is their first experience of The Great Courses from ever listening to another one.

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Lecturer isn't as clever as he thinks he is

Any additional comments?

I thought I would give the Great Courses another go. Once again the lecturer chosen seems an odd choice, This is a series of lectures on Empires before Alexander so they choose someone whose specialty is the Roman Empire! Why? Surely it should be someone who specialised in the earlier Empires.There are some superficially irritating things, why does each lecture end with some canned applause & some music thousands of years too late? Also the title should have been Empires of Europe, Near & Middle East before Alexander as no mention is made of any empires in China, India or Africa outside of Egypt etc. I don't mind the focus but I mind that it's pretending it's not there.Sadly the lecturer also feels the need to make factious comments every now & then which I imagine is supposed to make the lecture more engaging but actually is just irritating.However, despite this I have managed to persevere & have found it interesting enough to continue. However, niggles of doubt do creep in. The lecturer doesn't appear to know much about archery as he confuses compound & composite & fails to mention recurve when it was relevant. How much else, that I know less about, is similar?All in all Modern Scholar remains superior

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2 people found this helpful

Must Try Harder

Has Ancient Empires before Alexander put you off other books in this genre?

It could have if it had been the first "Great Courses" book I listened to

What aspect of Professor Robert L. Dise Jr.’s performance might you have changed?

There are parts of this course where he just sounds bored

Was Ancient Empires before Alexander worth the listening time?

Just about

Any additional comments?

"Professor" Robert L. Dise doesn't sound like a professor. He lacks impartiality on the various peoples. He uses racial epithets when describing some cultures:
For example he compares the ancient Greeks to a bunch of "Drunken Rednecks" and condemns them for daring to resist the Persian invasion.

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Interesting Material but Mediocre Delivery

This lecture course covers a large number of ancient empires, leading up to (but not including) Greece and Rome. For more details about content, I strongly recommend looking at the Great Courses web site which includes titles of each lecture (and lots of reviews). I knew very little about Ancient History and this course provided a really good introduction -- relatively brief on each empire, but a good overview. However the course had two main problems from my perspective. One is that the material is very much slanted towards military history -- lots of detail about armour, chariot types etc, while the cultures are treated rather sparsely. This would suit some people but wasn't ideal for me. The biggest problem though is that the lecturer is rather boring. He does not put any personality into the material -- he sounds as if he is just reading written notes and sometimes he sounds rather bored by the whole thing. Overall I'm glad to have listened to this but I had to force myself to keep going at several points.

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3 people found this helpful

Like Listening to Kevin Costner on Tranquillisers

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes, it was worthwhile, though I got more from reading the notes alongside my Penguin Atlas of Ancient Civilisations.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I have a soft spot for the Persian rulers, given such a hard time by Herodotus.

Would you be willing to try another one of Professor Robert L. Dise Jr.’s performances?

If the course contained information that I wanted to know about then yes; however, this is by far the worst oral performance I have yet encountered on Audible. 18 hours of droning monotone. Really pretty painful.

Do you think Ancient Empires before Alexander needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

If it does I would rather it was read/presented by somebody else!

Any additional comments?

Good and interesting material but only just about bearable to listen to.

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1 person found this helpful