Lone Cone Library

A survey of the American revolution, from its outbreak at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 until its close with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and the dispersion of the American Continental Army.

The concerto offers a kind of unique excitement no other instrumental music can match. Where a symphony enthralls us with its thematic variations and development, a concerto gives us human drama - the exhilaration of a soloist or group of soloists ringing forth against the mass of the orchestra. In 24 musically rich lectures, Professor Greenberg provides a guided tour of the concerto, from its conception as a child of Renaissance ideals, through its...

His friend, colleague, and esteemed political foe Clement Attlee once memorialized Winston Churchill as "the greatest Englishman of our time - I think the greatest citizen of the world of our time." More than a half-century later, Churchill's life remains proof that a single individual can change the course of history for the better and make of life a blessed and noble thing, despite public and private trials too numerous to name. Who was this extraordinary...

The civil liberties and constitutional rights possessed by our nation's citizens - not only in theory, but in the courtroom, where the state can be forced to honor those liberties - are a uniquely American invention. And when we were taught history and learned about the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, we were always made aware of that uniqueness, of the extraordinary experiment that gave to every citizen of this new nation a gift possessed by...

What exactly is the Western literary canon? Why does it contain certain works and not others? And what do particular works in the Western canon tell us about the development of literature and civilization? Explore these and other thought-provoking lectures with a thorough investigation of more than 30 key works of the Western canon and the critical roles they played - and continue to play - in the development of Western literature. Over the course...

What if your memory suddenly vanished, so that you could no longer summon recollections of anything at all? What if you couldn't even remember yourself - not your name, your school, where you worked, or even the face of the total stranger staring back at you from the mirror? If all of your memories were gone, would "self" even have a meaning? The truth is that while you may think of human memory as a capacity - a way to call up important facts or...

Although we often think of an artist's work as a window into their own inner world, that is not always the case. In the life of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, however, we can see perhaps the closest link to be found anywhere between a creative product and the shifting moods of a turbulent soul, which found its outlet through the glorious music created by the great Russian composer. To know his music, you must know the man, and this fast-moving series of...

These 12 lectures are an engaging and comprehensive introduction to one of the world's greatest faiths. By concentrating on the basics that every well-educated individual should know, Professor Johnson's lectures provide you with a clear survey of the most important elements of this religious tradition-and a framework for further study. In this lecture series, you'll consider fundamental issues including Christianity's birth and expansion across the...

Almost from the moment it was first set to paper, the music of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - technically superb, rich in quality, and widely imitated - has exemplified the Classical style, creating not only the Classical-era symphony but setting the standard, through his own 68 string quartets, against which that form has ever after been judged. And yet Haydn, despite the influence left by more than 1,000 works, seems to no longer get his due,...

Witness the "works and wonders" of the ancient world through the eyes of its first great historian in this sparkling series of 24 lectures from a much-honored teacher and classical scholar. Herodotus (c. 484-420 B.C.E.) was a Greek who was born in what is now the modern Turkish resort town of Bodrum and who died, so tradition says, in the south of Italy. In between, his tirelessly inquiring mind took him from one corner of the known world to another....