J. Rufus Fears

I earned my Ph.D. In history from the University of Oklahoma in 1992, and I regularly receive alumni communications. A recent Sooner Magazine included a story about Professor J. Rufus Fears, David Ross Boyd Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma, where he holds the G. T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty.  You can read the article here: http://www.oufoundation.org/sm/winter2010/story.asp?ID=360 You might find it interesting to wander around the back issues of Sooner Magazine. Digital versions are available online back to 2001.

Many of Professor Fears's publications are in the form of audio books, marketed by The Teaching Company. Here is his bio on their website... http://www.teach12.com/storex/professor.aspx?id=165

Curious about this popular and prestigious faculty member of my alma mater I decided to see what Amazon.com offered from him. Mostly, it offers audio books from... The Teaching Company. He has authored audio courses including Life Lessons from the Great Books, Famous Greeks, Famous Romans, andHistory of Freedom, among others. Because I wanted to hear a little about what he has to say before investing in a fairly expensive audio course, I went to my old friend google search and found a few YouTube snippets of his talks. For my money he lives up to his acclaim and is worth hearing. You might start with “Bush and The Imperial Lessons of Rome” at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FC553719F41D9E42 Professor Fears reminds us that our founding fathers relied heavily on Rome when laying the foundations of our own freedom. A transcript of a lecture entitled “Lessons of the Roman Empire for Today” at http://www.heritage.org/research/politicalphilosophy/hl917.cfm further explores this theme.

I hope you enjoy learning something from Professor Fears. I did. As always, question what you hear and read, and test it against your own knowledge and experience. If you do that I think Professor Fears will have accomplished his purpose, and I, mine in writing this blog...:-)