Awesome for car rides

I think this is a great lecture series giving a lot of really interesting information about Hannibal, his father, and the Carthaginians. As someone with an engineering background and little in the way of history, this class fills a critical gap in my personal study of the chronology of western civilization. Much of it I'm sure is pretty basic information, so history experts may find it boring. The professor does make clear where there is disagreement among scholars, especially with respect to Hannibal's pass through the Alps. On a technical note, the course is flawed by the audio being present on the left channel only. Also, it would have been helpful for the professor to repeat questions. Finally, I would have preferred a video version at time to see esp. John Hoyte's slides.

The first couple of lectures have been excellent, but the audio is restricted to the left channel.

This is great. The audio is extremely clear and Patrick Hunt talks slowly so it’s very easy to understand. It’s too bad we can’t see the maps and images he shows to his students and comments but other than that it’s as if we were in the room. The topic is fascinating and Patrick Hunt’s passion for the subject enhances the experience. Thanks Stanford and Patrick Hunt for sharing this knowledge!

A very able and articulate summary of Hannibal's impact on history, albeit riven with repetition of the logistics of alpine expeditioning - through that lens however Hunt brings to life greater insights on an instance of East-West competition for the ages.

False Advertising: This course is about Patrick Hunt not about Hannibal. Hannibal provides merely the backdrop, the scenery for what is essentially the Patrick Hunt show. This series of lectures would have been overpriced at half the price. Yes it is free. It costs nothing monetarily, but it is a colossal waste of time! Patrick Hunt spends so much verbiage speaking about himself that Hannibal is practically lost in the background noise. It is bad enough that Professor Hunt consistently mispronounces words (e.g., he needs to learn that horse mounted soldiers are "cavalry", not "calvary"!) and abuses the English language through misuse of words (e.g., the fact that "Roma" is "Amor" spelled backwards is not a "palindrome"), when he finally does speak about Hannibal, he is, as other reviewers have noted, often inaccurate and/or incomplete. His insights and analyses are either totally superficial or totally lacking. For example, after noting that the Battle of Zama is the first in which Hannibal does not use the terrain and does not choose the battle site, how can Professor Hunt not address the obvious question of "why"? The pièce de résistance of this travesty of a "university level" class is Professor Hunt's extensive use of out loud readings from texts that his students could have and should have read by themselves. If this course is any indicator, Professor Hunt is probably more suited to being an Alpine guide who can intersperse a smattering of historical spice into his hikes. A university professor, he is not. If you want to learn all that Professor Hunt has to say about Hannibal, read Polybius and Serge Lancel. If you want to learn more than that, read Livy and B. H. Liddell Hart.

THE GOOD EPISODES #1 had interesting information about carthage culture and the god Ba'al. #6 (aka 8. Hannibal in Italy) - gave details on Hannibals military tactics. Thats the reason he is famous. If you still want more info... maybe check out #2 and #3. They give semi sort of interesting info about the build up of hostilities between Rome and Carthage. I would avoid the episodes where they speculate about which pass hannibal took. If you are a professional historian or want to become a professional historian you might find them interesting. THey are more about the process of being a historian than about the Hannibal. THe final episode is not that interesting. If you are an OCD completist you might be curious about the details. Otherwise they already give the rough details in #6.

There was far too much info about particular expeditions this professor (And his mentor. And a student of his...) has undertaken to understand one particular niche issue - the specific route Hannibal took into Italy over the Alps in nine days. This isn't really that interesting as a substitute for a survey of the history itself. There's also considerable castle building in the sky, with wild speculations being passed off as likely/probable quite frequently.

To learn more about the Punic Wars and Phoenicians. While Hannibal was repetitious at times, especially given the time spent describing the logistics of getting elephants over the Alps, it was interesting and worthwhile.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard such a rambling, unfocused prattle. And there was so much unsubstantiated conjecture that I was left with mouth agape. I should disclose that I only listened to the first episode but, as another reviewer indicated, you could have condensed the useful information into 20 minutes of useful content. Given that the podcast is published under the auspices of Stanford University I can only say that it was extremely disappointing.

The relevant information given on Hannibal probably totals three hours or less, a number I don't feel that I am exaggerating. The rest of the program is superfluous stories, innumerable reiterations, and unrelated pet theories. Despite all that, the relevant information is really interesting and the professor is very knowledgable. In retrospect, I would choose a book over this program to learn about Hannibal. It would have saved me some considerable time.

Too often, this professor's lectures turn into a colorless (though enthusiastic) recitation of place-names, book references, pet theories, and questionably related details. Though his breadth of knowledge is obviously vast, he seems unable to tell a good story.

I listened to the whole lecture series. I love reading about Hannibal, and was hoping to get more information on his life from this lecture series, but it took a really brief, high level view of the events in his life, and dealt with Scipio a bit inaccurately, to boot. (Scipio wasn't just given command, he had to argue for it, and his veterans didn't pop out of nowhere, they were survivors of Cannae living in shame in Sicily due to their loss, etc.) I don't think these lectures did the subject justice, in other words. That said, it was quite interesting listening to the lectures about the archeological expeditions to the various passes in the Alps. So much so that because of these lectures, and Cottrell's great book on Hannibal, I'm going to plan a trip there the next chance I get. I've been to both Switzerland and France before, but if I can get my wife to sign on to the idea, I'd love to do the hike myself.

I am not sure why the previous reviewer was critical of this lecture series, all I can say is he gave up too soon. I found the series very informative and I quite enjoyed the eye-witness accounts of those who hiked the different passes. While historical facts may be easily acquired through study, the first hand accounts of this series are unique. I hope to revisit this series several times to completely assimilate all the information offered. Patrick Hunt is passionate about his subject and this passion to learn and share what he has learned is most evident.

Nothing can replace being in a lecture in person. Its critically important that the subject matter and lecturer be engaging. Those who would download a university lecture for fun must have a genuine interest in the subject matter. So whenever a poor iTunes u experience occurs it is the fault of the professor. Full disclosure, I only listened to the first three. And that's my point. When the professor takes so long to get to the point and you're constantly hitting the "back 30 seconds" button, the is ruined. In those 3 lectures I learned the carthaginians sacrificed their first born son. That's it. I didn't even relearn anything I already knew (vie studied ancient roman and Greek history). I'm sure this guy isn't bad in a live lecture but in podcast form it's horrible. A good contrast is the professor from UC Berkeley who teaches "history 5", history of modern Europe. She's riveting. And unfortunately, I'm beginning to notice a trend amongst the Stanford podcasts, they're not good. Of course don't read into that as Stanford being a poor school, it's just a statement about the podcasts they upload.