Teaching Co / Great Courses History of the United States as a spine?

[Melissa B]

Has anyone used the Teaching Company lectures - History of the United States (84 lectures) as the spine of their US history program? Or even as a supplement? I am wondering your opinion of the lectures. Were there any areas you considered weak or glossed over? Any major topics left out? Any areas that were exceptionally well done? How much will I need to add to fill out a history program? We will also have two textbooks from differing viewpoints and additional reading - mostly primary sources. We may also add in movies and additional lectures as they are available at our local library.

[MommyThrice]

We're listening to them. I just printed the US History outline from NROC (Monterrey Institute) and I was surprise by how well the lectures lined-up with the course plan. I like the lectures because they focus on "the big picture." We get plenty of detail from our history reading, so I really appreciate this broad scope approach.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I haven't listened to the entire series, but we love the Prof. Allitt lectures. He is the lecturer for the last third or so.

 

You might want to see if your library has I'm the Teacher, You're the Student by Allitt. It covers his life as a college professor over one semester, class by class. Not only is it a really interesting read, but it has his course syllabus (the course covered 1870 to modern) and his thoughts about teaching the different topics and how he handled the readings. Some of the readings are probably more in depth than you are looking for; he uses a lot of autobiography and no textbook. But I found it to be really intersting.