For those who wonder why

I picked up this lecture because of curiosity over witch burnings and religious inquisitions. How did people enact such cruel tortures upon others and what does that say about the human species?

Professor Teo does an amazing job recreating an image of life in the Middle Ages to explain the context of the events in history. I was fascinated by the rich detail of the time period and of his description of people's lives, culture, fears and beliefs.

In addition, Professor Teo is such an interesting, expressive speaker, that it was easy to get immersed in his lectures. I encourage history fans and anyone who has a curiosity about the time period to take a listen.

36 people found this helpful

Lightweight Intro to a Complicated Topic

Professor Ruiz spends way too much time telling us that things are important, or difficult, or how much we really need to know them - then scants the actual content.

Case in point - the lecture on Jewish Mysticism. He actually tells us twice that he knows this is boring material. Thanks, Prof! Jewish Mysticism is not boring - what's boring is a lecturer who takes 8-10 minutes to get to the content of a 30-minute session.

For a Great Courses release, this is distinctly lightweight.

Much better audiobook about this material - Michael Bailey's Magic and Superstition in Europe.

34 people found this helpful

What's in a name

Any additional comments?

"The Terror of History" a haunting title that makes more sense after finishing the lectures. The lectures are interesting and have a personal feel, I did not find Ruiz's accent a distraction, as some comments warned. One of the most memorable TGC lectures.

16 people found this helpful

The best Great Courses course thus far

A very interesting and well presented look into the terror of history and the ways in which people try to cope in an uncertain and unexplainable universe. Some people have criticized the presentation (the lecturer is not a native English speaker) but it really was easy to understand everything. Also the whole course was presented passionately and in an very captivating way. As a historian myself, I wholeheartedly recommend this course. Great stuff.

5 people found this helpful

So you want to reinforce your bias? Not learn?

Rubbish. TLDR version: check Thomas Madden's section of the Modern Scholar series instead for a better analysis.

The professor/narrator is dedicated to looking at the medieval/renaissance world through the lens of power disparity and politics, ignoring the religious implications entirely and seeing everything as a battle between proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The world at this point was more focused on maintaining unity and concerned with truth; not personal liberty. The narrator might as well attack Charles V for not instituting a modern democracy! Of course the "other" was the victim; religious tolerance was not a thing in this time. This is not a history lecture that will help you understand what the people were likely thinking. This is a history lecture to emphasize that the medievals were terrible people compared to us. In other words, the worst kind of rubbish history lecturing.

I'm very dismayed.

I fully recommend the Modern Scholar series instead. Tom Madden does a much better job without nearly as much modern bias and criticism. These "Great Courses" have been a real let-down.

11 people found this helpful

An interesting listen

Overall, I did enjoy listening to this audio-book, but I can understand that it is not for everyone. The pdf material is essentially just an outline of the lectures. Which is useful, because the narrator does have an accent. He is easy to understand with commonly used words, but some less common terms combined with his accent can cause a little confusion. With that said, the narrator was a very likeable speaker. Please do not expect a professionally narrated script.

Personally I found the section about witchcraft the most interesting. The author makes very interesting points about how society has treated women during these times. I'll probably give this a for more listens when I have downtime.

5 people found this helpful

Great Courses Are wonderful

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is not the first course that I have taken from Great Courses. The company provides almost effortless learning in many fields.
This course is one that I will recommend because the content points to history's treatment of people who dare to think differently than society's norm.

What did you like best about this story?

The professor likes his materials and this came through his treatment of bias through history.

What does Professor Teofilo F. Ruiz bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A wonderful voice and teaching style.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No.This is not your usual audiobook.

Any additional comments?

This course is buffet of viewpoints.Easy to follow without any prior knowledge of the subject, the course gives you a chance to sit in on meaty classes to which you might not otherwise get exposed.

9 people found this helpful

Based on primary source material

This is so informative and based on historical material rather than fluff and conjecture. Also very entertaining in pace and presence

3 people found this helpful

Good but not what I expected

This was the first of the Great Courses that I've listened too and I've started a second so overall I like the addition of the series to Audible. Having said that, this was a little disappointing. The professor obviously knows his stuff and was able relate the concepts to current life as much as possible. What was disappointing was all the context he provided. I absolutely agree that you need to understand the political, economic and cultural surroundings to properly place mystics, heretics and witches. Unfortunately, I often felt he spent more time on the context then the actual subject. I learned a great deal about the power of the religion-government partnership, about how the middle class developed and even the violence of the times. While interesting it wasn't what I expected.

My three-star rating is not about the quality of the lectures themselves but more about how the content did not fit the title as I expected. Perhaps that was my misunderstanding and others will feel the title matches perfectly.

22 people found this helpful

Teo Is one of my favorite lecturerson GreatCourses

This is a complicated course to review. The professor is one of my favorite lecturers on GreatCourses, and I enjoyed it immensely. However it’s a little hard to describe. It’s true that the last section does involve the persecution of witches. But the overall course is more about medieval and early modern times and how people reacted to the stresses and uncertainty. Professor Ruiz definitely has a left-leaning political perspective, but I enjoy hearing from different approaches. Someone contrasted this course with Professor Madden’s and I would say that I enjoy them both! If you read or listen to history to only get one perspective, you are missing out.

Professor Ruiz has a lovely speaking voice and the content is surprising enough that it’s worth listening to more than once.

1 person found this helpful