In this concise and well-written work, Wells provides an accessible introduction to genetic anthropology, the study of human history using genetic evidence.
Wells does a fantastic job distilling both genetics and genetic anthropology into straightforward topics, presenting sophisticated material accessibly without oversimplification. He gives the reader the basic concepts (Y chromosomes, mtDNA, haplogroups, genetic markers) and then proceeds to step through genographic research from its 19th-century origins to the present day. In so doing, he takes the reader back to the 170,000-year-old female genetic ancestor of every person alive today: the so-called African Eve.
The proper understanding of language always implies the understanding of its past and the circumstances that lead to its present state. This makes historical linguistics a field that is worth studying, and it shows that in its methods it is on an equal level with contemporary automatic analysis of natural language.
The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession - Canonists, Civilians and Courts
In the aftermath of sixth-century barbarian invasions, the legal profession that had grown and flourished during the Roman Empire vanished. Nonetheless, professional lawyers suddenly reappeared in Western Europe seven hundred years later during the 1230s when church councils and public authorities began to impose a body of ethical obligations on those who practiced law. James Brundage’s The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession traces the history of legal practice from its genesis in ancient Rome to its rebirth in the early Middle Ages and eventual resurgence in the courts of the medieval church.
The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation, 2nd ed.
It is widely recognized that the sixteenth-century Reformation remains one of the most fascinating and exciting areas of scholarship. A central and important question, raised by intensive modern research on the Renaissance and late medieval scholasticism, concerns the intellectual origins of the Reformation.
(24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
