The Great Courses

What is our species' greatest invention? Medicine, computers, space travel? Not even close. The innovation that underlies each of our past achievements and those we still aspire to is language....

Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of finger-wagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and complicated rules of using formal language....

Education can be enriching and transformative. It can also be downright excruciating—even demoralizing. When it comes to learning, why are some of us lovers and some of us haters? Welcome to the world of educational psychology....

Words. We use them all the time, every day, mostly without giving them much thought at all. We take for granted that they’re here at our disposal whenever we need them. But if you’ve ever wished you could communicate more effectively, words are the place to start....

The power of an effective speech is undeniable. It has the capacity to engage, inform, motivate, and create change in an audience - and in the world....

In an exciting partnership with the Smithsonian, The Great Courses presents these 24 lectures that offer an unforgettable tour of Japanese life and culture....

The Years That Changed History: 1776 invites you to take a uniquely different look at the events of this famous year, in a brilliant and surprising excavation of world history.

Dr. Catherine Kleier invites us to open our eyes to the phenomenal world of plant life and to the process she calls “Natura Revelata”, the joy of celebrating and learning from the secrets of nature....

In The Great Courses’ The Story of the Mediterranean World, you’ll relive the fabulous history of a critical crossroads of human civilization.

As you will discover in The History of Grocery Stores and Food Access in America, we shouldn’t take the neighborhood grocery store for granted.

Whether you’re looking for proof of alien life or seeking the meaning of life here on Earth, you’ll find that the domain of philosophy and the realm of the weird converge in surprising ways via the six lectures of From Aliens to Bigfoot: A Philosopher’s Guide to the Strange.

Toni Morrison has touched an enormous swath of our national and global society through her writing. She has attained the highest heights in literature—including the Nobel Prize—and has earned her place in the literary canon, ranking among the most important American writers of all time.

One of the greatest scientific feats of our era is the astonishing progress made in understanding biology-a progress to which the period we are living in right now has contributed the most....

Noted Japan expert Professor Mark J. Ravina of the University of Texas at Austin covers the politics, economics, and culture of the island nation since World War II - a conflict that saw the end of Japan’s dream of regional conquest, which Professor Ravina calls Empire 1.0....

Even after deciphering its hieroglyphs, and marveling at its scarabs, mummies, obelisks, and sphinxes, Egyptian civilization remains one of history's most mysterious....

Learn how a single tongue spoken 150,000 years ago evolved into the estimated 6,000 languages used around the world today....

This course offers an overview of the English language that is literary, historical, cultural, political, and scientific in its scope....

In the six lectures of How to Build and Maintain Trust in the Workplace, leadership coach Rachel Campagna will help you understand the importance of trust and how it works from a professional perspective.

In the six lectures of The Power and Persona of Catherine de’ Medici, you will join Professor William Landon of Northern Kentucky University to explore the impact of an unlikely ruler who established an astonishing political and cultural legacy.

Over the span of 48 lectures, four experienced lawyers and teachers recreate key parts of the first-year law student experience....