Video documentaries about history of the world
In The Vietnam War episode 2, President Kennedy inspires idealistic young Americans to serve their country and wrestles with how deeply to get involved in South Vietnam. As the increasingly autocratic Diem regime faces a growing communist insurgency and widespread Buddhist protests, a grave political crisis unfolds. The Vietnam War episode 2 – Riding the Tiger The Vietnam War […]
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The Vietnam War episode 1 – Déjà Vu: After a long and brutal war, Vietnamese revolutionaries led by Ho Chi Minh end nearly a century of French colonial occupation. With the Cold War intensifying, Vietnam is divided in two at Geneva. Communists in the north aim to reunify the country, while America supports Ngo Dinh Diem’s untested regime in the south.
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Dan Snow takes us on a journey around Hadrian’s vast empire.Immortalised in the UK after building a Wall on the edge of his Empire, which bears his name to this day. Hadrian’s Wall, as it is known, is just a tiny portion of a massive structure Hadrian had built to protect the Roman Empire, with similar, sister walls running through
Their millennium-old legacy includes some of history’s most mysterious characters and relics, from the Holy Grail to King Solomon’s riches, Freemasons, and the Barbary Pirates. From humble monks to fearsome warriors, the Knights of Malta became Europe’s valiant and admired heroes. Tales of the ancient order of knights unfold on this in-depth exploration. The Sovereign Order of the
To mark 50 years since the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, Trevor McDonald travels to America’s Deep South in the hope of getting closer to the man who meant so much to him and so many others. He uncovers new sides to the story, speaks to a former member of the
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Auschwitz – The Nazis and The Final Solution is a BBC six parts documentary film series presenting the story of Auschwitz through interviews with former inmates and guards to include authentic re-enactments of relevant events. The history of the Final Solution phase of the Nazi Holocaust, particularly with the most infamous of the death camps. Auschwitz – The Nazis and
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Cleopatra – the most famous woman in history. We know her as a great queen, a beautiful lover and a political schemer. For 2,000 years almost all evidence of her has disappeared – until now. In one of the world’s most exciting finds, archaeologists believe they have discovered the skeleton of her sister, murdered by Cleopatra and Mark
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In his six-hour – 6 part series, Africa’s Great Civilizations, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes a new look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century. This is a breathtaking and personal journey through two hundred thousand years of history, from the origins, on the African continent, of art, writing and
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Vienna was the capital of the Habsburg dynasty and home to the Holy Roman Emperors. From here, they dominated middle Europe for nearly 1,000 years. In this series, historian Simon Sebag Montefiore describes how the Habsburgs transformed Vienna into a multi-national city of music, culture and ideas. Napoleon, Hitler, Mozart, Strauss, Freud, Stalin and Klimt all played their part. Vienna:
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In Civilisations episode 9, Simon Schama begins Civilisations with this premise: that it is in art – the play of the creative imagination – that humanity expresses its most essential self: the power to break the tyranny of the humdrum, the grind of everyday. Art, then, makes life worth living; it is the great window into human potential. And societies
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Shoah is a 1985 documentary film about the Holocaust, directed by Claude Lanzmann. Over nine hours long and 11 years in the making, the film presents Lanzmann’s interviews with survivors, witnesses and perpetrators during visits to German Holocaust sites across Poland, including extermination camps. Shoah – Part 1 Hailed as a masterpiece by many critics, Shoah was described
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If David Olusoga’s first film in Civilisations is about the art that followed and reflected early encounters between different cultures, his second explores the artistic reaction to imperialism in the 19th century. David shows the growing ambivalence with which artists reacted to the idea of progress – both intellectual and scientific – that underpinned the imperial mission and followed the
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