Video documentaries about history of the world
In The Crusades – Clash of the Titans episode 2, Dr Thomas Asbridge offers a piercing examination of the Third Crusade and the two renowned figures who have come to embody Crusader war: Richard the Lionheart, king of England, and the mighty Muslim sultan Saladin, unifier of Islam. Drawing on fascinating eyewitness accounts and contemporary records, Dr Asbridge constructs an […]
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The Crusades – Holy War episode 1 : Dr Thomas Asbridge presents a revelatory account of the Crusades, the 200-year war between Christians and Muslims for control of the Holy Land. The story of the Crusades is remembered as a tale of religious fanaticism and unspeakable violence, but now fresh research, eyewitness testimony and contemporary evidence from both
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The Glorious Story of Castles: carriers of myths and legends, castles strongly mark our imaginations, appearing most often as the pivot of a dark and barbaric period. Reality is different. They are full of mystery and grandeur, emblematic abstractions of the Middle Ages, they testify to medieval civilization. The Glorious Story of Castles A castle is a type
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The Daunting Fortress of Richard the Lionheart: to protect his rich and strategic lands in France, the English king, Richard the Lionheart, decided to build an impregnable castle to bar the route along the Seine, thus asserting his supremacy in Normandy. Four years later, France’s King Philip besieged the site at the head of an army of 6,000
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Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered – Dallas Campbell reports on new scientific research being carried out on his fragile remains in an attempt to get to the truth. What killed King Tutankhamun? Ever since his spectacular tomb was discovered, the boy king has been the most famous pharaoh of all ancient Egypt. But his mysterious death, at just 19
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Apocalypse Stalin: Who was Stalin? The man who defeated Nazism? The ‘Little Father of the Peoples’? Or the greatest criminal of his time? Part 1: Demon Episode covers Joseph Stalin’s early life and his early political activities which resulted in his rose to power with the help of Lenin. June 1941 Hitler has thrown himself into a
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Civilisation episode 8 – The Light of Experience: Kenneth Clark’s story takes him from the Holland of Rembrandt and Vermeer to the London of Wren, Purcell and the Royal Society. Kenneth Clark’s classic 1969 series tracing the history of Western art and philosophy. Civilisation episode 8 – The Light of Experience Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
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1989: The Year that Made the Modern World episode 6: From the protests of Tiananmen Square to the fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989 transformed global politics in profound ways that still resonate today; former Secretary of State James Baker and journalists provide eyewitness accounts. A chronicle of the most consequential events of 1989, which saw the rise
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Civilisation episode 7 – Grandeur and Obedience: Sir Kenneth Clark presents one of the classic episodes of his history of the civilised culture of the western world. He examines the Catholic world in the 16th Century, especially the city of Rome which blossomed architecturally and sculpturally during the Counter Reformation under the hands of the baroque artist Bernini. This programme
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1989: The Year that Made the Modern World episode 5: Filmmaker Kevin Smith and a host of tech insiders examine the dawn of the digital age in 1989, the year the first modern GPS satellites roamed above the earth, the Game Boy appeared, and the World Wide Web debuted. A chronicle of the most consequential events of 1989,
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1989: The Year that Made the Modern World episode 4: Chuck D and Arsenio Hall discuss the pop-culture revolution of 1989 that raised the collective social consciousness. A chronicle of the most consequential events of 1989, which saw the rise of radicalism, the intensification of tabloid news culture, the birth of the internet, and diverse voices gaining unprecedented
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Civilisation episode 5 – The Hero as Artist: Kenneth Clark continues his personal reflections on civilisation with a look at Papal Rome in the early 16th Century. Three great artists, Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci are the chief protagonists in Clark’s ‘Individuals of Genius’ theme. It takes him through the gardens and courtyards of the Vatican to
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