World history between 100 BCE and 1200 CE - MMW 3

Here is a final recommendation for the history lecture series MMW 3 The Medieval Heritage by Matthew Herbst from UC San Diego. If you remotely consider looking into this one, go and get your files before UCSD take them off line, as they usually do.

MMW 3 gives world history from 100 BCE to 1200 CE in the widest sense. Whereas most general history courses focus on Western history, MMW attempts to take on every region in the world. This I already wrote in my previous review, that covered the first half of the course and this is all the more true for the second half that I have finished just now. There is attention for West-Africa, Ethiopia, Medieval Europe, Sung China and even the Incas and other nations of the New World, that were still isolated from the rest in this time period.

The strength of this series, that it covers indeed the whole world, comes at a price. Especially by the end, the chronology is very difficult to get a grip on. It is therefore especially important to pick up the last lecture in which Professor Herbst summarizes the main learning points of the course, one of them being contact and exchange. Apart from the Inca Empire, no part is completely isolated and through trade routes, not only goods but also cultural content is exchanged to and fro.

More MMW:
MMW 3,
UCSD's lecture podcasts,
MMW 2,
MMW 4,
MMW 6.