Writing family history
This album contains extracts from interviews with a wide range of people talking about family history. Some history is recalled in oral form, some in photographic and some in written form, as biographical or autobiographical evidence. Many aspects of this approach to writing are discussed in illuminating and perceptive depth, giving wide-ranging yet informative coverage of the topic. This material forms part of the course A173 Start writing family history.Author(s):
Buildings of ancient Rome
Rome: a majestic city with a rich past, spanning over two and a half thousand years. What remains to be seen of ancient Rome? As the heart of the Roman Empire, ancient Rome’s archaeological remains have been studied and admired for centuries, many being well-preserved due to their incorporation into newer structures. This album explores the sites of some of the republican temples in Rome’s Campus Martius, and relates them to the men who built them. The Roman Forum, centre of political and so
Power and people in ancient Rome
The ancient Romans constructed some of the first ever purpose-built venues for mass-entertainment. How do these structures enhance the audience’s experience of the spectacle? This album looks at famous Roman buildings like the Colosseum, a venue designed to impress, where vast numbers of people congregated for gladiatorial combat, chariot-racing and theatrical shows. Structures such as the Circus Maximus and even the Baths were designed as striking symbols of civic pride, glorifying the po
Inuit Throat Singing
In many cultures, song is perhaps one of the most important traditions. What is extraordinary about the Inuit musical tradition is the way they create their songs - with notes originating from their throats. The song isn't interrupted even when a breath has to be taken. The 6 tracks in this album focus on Tanya Tagaq, who describes the amazing art of throat singing and how her heritage and culture, carried in her heart forever, has driven her to continue with this unique tradition. This mater
Islam in the West
This course is designed to stimulate informed debate about the role of Islam in western societies. Issues explored include the diversity of western Muslim populations and leaders; the role of the media; Muslim education and social and political engagement; and the politics of multiculturalism. Controversial Muslim intellectual, Tariq Ramadan provides a challenging insider’s perspective on the issues discussed, plus other interviews with authors, critics and Muslim community leaders. The course
Exploring Philosophy
Have you ever considered what being conscious actually means? By choosing to live in a particular state are you consenting to be subject to all its laws? For some there’s an assumption that philosophy might not be relevant to modern life but Dr. Nigel Warburton, senior lecturer in Philosophy at The Open University argues that many of us today are faced with philosophical questions such as these as we live our lives in the twenty first century. In this collection we ask academics to discuss the
Wordsworth, De Quincey and Dove cottage
Can a location inspire great poetry? To what extent can a person’s environment influence their art? After leaving the area as a child the Romantic poet William Wordsworth returned to the Lake District and remained there from 1799 to 1802. Surrounded by scenery he cherished Wordsworth composed some of his best poetry in Dove Cottage, but the building was also the residence of friend Thomas De Quincy whom documented his time with the Wordsworth’s as well as his own experiences in the property.
Perceptions of English literature
To what extent has the definition of English literature changed over the last 50 years? What criteria do we use when classifying a novel as English? And is this definition organic enough to assimilate new works and different interpretations? Professor Terry Eagleton leads the discussion by explaining how perceptions of Englishness changed during the 20th century and we discover that as a result of authors such as Chinua Achebe, Andrea Levy and Marina Levitska, notions of what was an English nove
Regina Jonas: the first female rabbi
Regina Jonas (1902-1944), who is now widely recognised as the world’s first female rabbi, was ordained in Nazi Germany in 1935. However, for many years after her death at Auschwitz, she remained a largely forgotten figure until the discovery of her papers in the early 1990s. This collection explores Jonas’ story, which raises important issues in relation to the role of women in historiography and the connection between processes of remembering, forgetting and identity formation. Stefanie Sin
The moral equality of combatants
This free course introduces and explores the idea of the moral equality of combatants and discusses the question of the basis of liability to killing in war. It invites students to understand and assess the epistemological argument for the moral equality of combatants and other arguments for and against this idea.
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An introduction to music theory
Gain an understanding of the basic building blocks of musical theory and notation. This free course, An introduction to music theory, will introduce you to music staves, clefs, rhythmic and pitch values, rhythmic metre and time signatures. This OpenLearn course provides an introduction to music theory pitched at a level equivalent to Grades 1–3 of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music theory exams. You can test your understanding as you proceed by completing simple multiple-choice
The origins of the wars of the three kingdoms
From Catholic rebellion to Civil War, what happened during the latter years of the reign of Charles I that caused people to take up arms against their fellow citizens? This free course, The origins of the wars of the three kingdoms, looks at the background of the wars between England, Scotland and Ireland and how the king's actions led to the rift between royalists and parliamentarians.
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Keep on learning There are more than 800 courses on OpenLearn for you to choose fr 3.1 Categories of fiction A 2.1 Setting as antagonist Nothing happens nowhere. (Elizabeth Bowen, in Burroway, 2003) Showing the References 1.1.2 Egyptian calculation The earliest Egyptian script was hieroglyphic, used from before 3000 BC until the early centuries AD. Initially an all-purpose script, it was eventually used only for monumental stone-carving and formal inscriptions. It had been s 1.1.1 The Rhind papyrus For a literate civilisation extending over some 4000 years, that of the ancient Egyptians has left disappointingly little evidence of its mathematical attainments. Even though the classical Greeks believed mathematics to have been invented in Egypt – though their accounts are far from unanimous on how this happened – there are now but a handful of papyri and other objects to convey a sense of Egyptian mathematical activity. The largest and best preserved of these is the Rhind papyrus (Ext 4.2 Moral grounds for thinking we are immortal The moral reason (as Hume calls it) for thinking that there is an afterlife has already been touched on. God, being just, would surely see to it that we are punished or rewarded for our aberrant or commendable actions; this punishment or reward doesn't take place in this life, so it must take place after our body's demise. Here is a simple statement of the reasoning: The moral argument for supposing there is an 2.1 Working through the section This section examines Hume's reasons for being complacent in the face of death, as these are laid out in his suppressed essay of 1755, ‘Of the immortality of the soul’. More generally, they examine some of the shifts in attitude concerning death and religious belief that were taking place in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century, through examination of this and other short essays. These changes were wide ranging and driven by many factors. Religion touched every aspect of cult
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Box 1 A note on Egyptian scripts and numerals
