One of the worst Great Courses I've listened through. The premise of "big history" is fine enough, and follows in the footsteps of people like Jared Diamond (who is also referred to in the course); analysing history through a wide lens that also includes macro trends in climate and ecological realities such as what plants and animals are available where. Unfortunately 90% of this course isn't about that, but rather a speedrun of poorly articulated world history. If you're even remotely familiar with some eras like the ancient greeks or romans, you'll start to notice he's issuing incredibly misleading if not outright false summaries of centuries just to get through it. He also returns to Malthus and malthusian cycles over and over, instead of widening the perspective with other big history trends and interpretations.
Don't waste your time. Read Jared Diamond's Guns Germs and Steel instead, and then a better world history overview. ( )