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Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Ancient Greeks by Wesleyan University

4.7
stars
1,961 ratings

About the Course

This is a survey of ancient Greek history from the Bronze Age to the death of Socrates in 399 BCE. Along with studying the most important events and personalities, we will consider broader issues such as political and cultural values and methods of historical interpretation....

Top reviews

AS

Apr 22, 2018

This has been an enthralling course which introduces you to the world of the Ancient Greek. Thank you Prof. Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, and all the course creators and mentors, for this excellent course.

FC

Apr 5, 2020

This course really helped me to understand one of the empires which fascinated me the most and its influence on today's society. Thank you very much for this thought-out and well-presented course

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1 - 25 of 573 Reviews for The Ancient Greeks

By George L

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Oct 16, 2015

Well presented, wonderful insight into the world of the ancient Greeks. I learnt a lot, and it has whetted my appetite for more. I really loved this course, and enjoyed it very much indeed

By Mike C

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Sep 23, 2016

Fantastic course. Information packed, but not overwhelming. The links to online readings provide nice context for a lot of the lectures, but weren't in any way daunting. Highly recommend!

By Mick H

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Sep 4, 2015

Brilliant course. Superbly assembled and presented material. And I love the prof's wry sense of humour!

I've been wanting to learn about this subject for many years. Highly recommended.

By Andrew L

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May 5, 2020

An outstanding course, and a wonderful experience. Thank you to Andrew Szegedy-Maszak for sharing your wealth of knowledge and understanding (with some great touches of dry wit!) in such an interesting and detailed way. The course had much greater depth than I had expected - which was very welcome - and I've come away feeling enriched by greater understanding and enthused to study further. I'd recommend this course without reservation to anyone who wishes to encounter this period in some depth and breadth - anyone with an interest in the classical world, or in human culture and interaction in general. [NB, the readings often take much longer than the minimal 10 minutes indicated as standard]. What a privilege to have learned so much from Andrew and the team. Thank you!

By Catharine H

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Apr 24, 2020

I'm a History student and I had already taken a class of Classical Ancient Antiquity, but I wanted to remind myself of some details that you forget with time. I love this subject but I expected this class to be more "simplified" and I was happy to see that it went much more in depth into the Ancient Greeks than I thought it would. Very happy to have learned new things, amazing professor as well, very eloquent and well spoken. Had a great time. If you like Ancient History and want to learn more I definitely recommend this class (although I think you should have at least some background in this subject because it's not a beginners class).

By Jessica P

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Mar 15, 2020

Wow. This course was more in-depth than I would have ever imagined it to be! At first, you will feel overwhelmed, confused, or possibly over your head (if you have little to no previous knowledge about ancient Greeks like myself), but don't give up! It's well worth it, and if you put in the time to read all his assignments, everything comes together. I also checked out a few library books to fill in some gaps. He was a great professor! I would love to have him in another class.

By Fedor v R

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Feb 9, 2021

This is a useful and well-explained overview of the Archaic and Classical ages of Greek society, with a short introduction of what came before. It seemed to be rather limited in scope though and could have been extended with more lectures about the Hellenistic age, the Greeks under the Romans, the Byzantines, a focus on the Greeks in relationship to other peoples. The choice of ending with the death of Socrates but not really including Plato or Aristotle or spending more time on the continuation of history seemed a bit random though. Didactically, the choice of teaching methods was a little limited as well, with most lectures being just that, the teacher speaking in front of a projector screen. Other teaching methods, including more tools available in the digital age, might improve the delivery and reach of the course.

By Akhilesh S

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Apr 23, 2018

This has been an enthralling course which introduces you to the world of the Ancient Greek. Thank you Prof. Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, and all the course creators and mentors, for this excellent course.

By Dale C

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Oct 20, 2020

Very informative. Great images of places and objects related to the course. There are, however, several broken links is the supplementary material.

By Stanley H K

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May 7, 2017

Someone should proof read the written transcript of the lectures. There are differences in spelling between one and another. Sometimes the machine did not understand what the Professor said and says "unknown." Also the tests were sort of what were in my day called Mickey Mouse. This course was not nearly as good as the one I took on Constitutional Law from Professor Amar at Yale.

By LYNDA S

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Aug 5, 2020

I had hoped for a bit more on culture. Course was more like a list of Greek leaders and battles.

By Eoin P S

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Apr 27, 2021

Great overview and introduction into the Ancient Greek world. It covers quite a large amount of history in a comparably brief time-frame, but it is none the lesser for it. There is so much here that provides a jumping off point for further learning.

The video lectures were engaging and well done, and the readings were always relevant and fascinating! It's such a treat to be able to go straight to the ancient texts as sources, especially for history as far flung as the Ancient Greeks can seem. Some of the links for the readings were broken, but since everything is public domain this was rarely too much of an issue.

For a reading recommendation to pair with this course I would suggest 'Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times' by Thomas R. Martin. It is too a compact introduction to this time in history and I felt reinforced the learning well.

By Edward H

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Dec 14, 2020

A wonderful course. Professor Szegedy-Maszak is a wonderful guide, bringing both knowledge and enthusiasm to his task. The course is very well structured, providing an excellent overview of the period from the Minoans to the death of Alexander but stopping for closer analysis where necessary. The lectures and readings on fifth-century Athens and the Peloponnesian War are particularly good. I had a lot of working knowledge about this period but learned a lot and was prompted to think more about some issues.

By Mihaela D

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Oct 27, 2020

Thank you for a great course, very instructive and enjoyable. The teacher is wonderful, I will try to take more courses with professor Andrew Szegedy-Maszak. You are one of the best teachers, sir, I really love the way you prepared this course, I admire the way you organized the material, the clarity and the interactivity. Great use of map, images, etc made the whole experience a pure joy.

Thank you and God bless you!

By Dale W

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Nov 7, 2020

Loved it. I knew next to nothing about ancient Greece before this course. I am now confident in completing other courses. I really enjoyed Andrews's lecture style, though the reading was difficult going at times

By BoumTAC

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May 6, 2021

Super interesting, Andrew Szegedy-Maszak was an amazing teacher, the course was great, well condensed but it was so interesting that I would not mind a follow up course with more detail !

By Daniel J Y

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May 31, 2017

El profesor maneja bastante bien los temas y contenidos del curso. Es igualmente enriquecedora la bibliografía que ofrece al alumnado para complementar o profundizar en algunos aspectos del curso. Aunque deja varios temas al aire (dada la brevedad del curso) como las civilizaciones pre-helénicas Ahrede, es una excelente introducción al mundo griego. También resulta de utilidad para los que ya están familiarizados con la historia de Grecia antigua, ya que ofrece interpretaciones y discusiones actualmente vigentes en la historiografía. Agradezco también a Coursera por hacer posible que expertos en temas que poco o nada se tocan en algunos países (México en mi caso) estén al alcance de quienes estamos interesados en formarnos de manera académica en la Historia antigua.

By Oliver G

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Jun 18, 2020

What a truly wonderful course. Very informative, great content and detailed videos. The video lectures are just the rite length not too long that I lost focus and not too short either. I feel like I have learnt a great deal about the "Ancient Greeks" during the time periods covered in this course. It is an inspiring course that I highly recommend it has reignited my old passion fro studying history that I have lost since completing secondary school. Thank you Andrew Szegedy-Maszak and Wesleyan University for making this course.

By Joan C A

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Oct 8, 2020

Very interesting course! Big thanks to Mr Szegedy-Maszak, I enjoyed his classes a lot. The contents give a good overview of the main periods of Greek civilization. Could have an eighth week to cover Hellenistic Greece but as he put it, that's something we can tackle by ourselves having the main points of Dark age, Archaic and Classical Greece.

By Maria I F

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Jul 5, 2020

When I've studied Philosophy, we were through the Greeks, but we weren't really busy with their History, after taking the course Ancient Greek I have a better view of Greeks, their time and their life.

Thank you to PhD. Szegedy- Maszalk and Coursera. org for letting me taking this course without paying for it

Best regards Isabel Fajardo

By David K

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Nov 18, 2020

This course gives a very good overview of Ancient Greek history. I have to admit that the course is much better than classes in this subject I took during my own studies. The combination of relevant information, clear explanation and the use of primary texts make this course great for anyone interested in classical civilization.

By Matthew V

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Oct 23, 2020

This course provides a great overview of the timeline of basic Greek history. But don't be fooled by the word 'basic'. While only a sweeping summary, this class was long and challenging, and got me to read many classic works I was beforehand too intimidated to pick up! Difficult and worth every week!!

By Aikaterini B

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Oct 18, 2020

I really enjoyed this course by Professor Andrew Szegedy-Maszak. I learned a lot, I remembered many things and I believe that such as those courses advance our knowledge and understanding of the past and our anchestors. Thank you very much, Professor!

By Daniela B

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Jun 28, 2020

Excellent course about Ancient Greeks! Professor Andrew is very clear, nice, and has so many update information in the field of Classics. Highly Recommended!

By Paris P

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Nov 10, 2020

I thought this was a very good first foray into Greek history. I enjoyed Dr Szegedy-Maszak as an instructor and found the way he taught very accessible.