history Archives - Page 54 of 61

The Mayflower Pilgrims: Behind the Myth

History / 2 minutes of reading / June 20, 2019 / By HDclump

The voyage of the Mayflower in 1620 has come to define the founding moment of America, celebrated each year at Thanksgiving. A lavish new drama documentary by Ric Burns, based on governor William Bradford’s extraordinary eye-witness account, the Mayflower Pilgrims reveals the grim truth behind their voyage across the Atlantic. The Pilgrims story has come to define the founding moment of America and all it stands for. Celebrated each year at Thanksgiving, it is remembered as a pious crusade aimed at founding a Puritan paradise. However their journey from a harsh, often violent part of England to a […]

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The Gulag

History / 2 minutes of reading / June 19, 2019 / By HDclump

Documentary examining Stalin’s Gulag. Between the October Revolution and Stalin’s death in 1953, millions of people died in the camps. The film explores the Gulag legacy, hearing from victims and perpetrators of the system. The Gulag part 1 The Gulag was the government agency in charge of the Soviet forced labor camp system that was created under Vladimir Lenin and reached its peak during Joseph Stalin’s rule from the 1930s to the 1950s. The term is also commonly used in English language to refer to any forced-labor camp in the Soviet Union, including camps that existed in post-Stalin

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Who’s Afraid of Machiavelli?

History / 2 minutes of reading / June 18, 2019 / By HDclump

With performances from Peter Capaldi, this documentary marks the 500th anniversary of Machiavelli’s notorious book The Prince. Famous for lines like ‘It is better to be feared than loved’, The Prince has been a manual for tyrants from Napoleon to Stalin. But how relevant is The Prince today, and who are the 21st century Machiavellians? Alan Yentob talks to contributors including Colonel Tim Collins, who kept a copy of The Prince with him in Iraq; plus Hilary Devey, Alastair Campbell and Game of Thrones writer George RR Martin. Niccolò Machiavelli Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 May

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A Scottish Soldier: A Lost Diary of WWI

History / 2 minutes of reading / May 27, 2019 / By HDclump

A Scottish Soldier: A Lost Diary of WWI: thousands of black soldiers fought in the First World War. Poet Jackie Kay tells the story of one of them – Arthur Roberts. Arthur grew up in Glasgow and joined the King’s Own Scottish Borderers in 1917. He fought at Ypres and kept a detailed diary, which gives us a unique account of the war. Arthur’s evocative writing and sketches paint a vivid first-hand picture of life in the trenches. Like Arthur, Jackie Kay is a black Glaswegian, and she explores what it was like being black 100 years ago.

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Last Emperor of Mexico

History / 2 minutes of reading / May 22, 2019 / By HDclump

Last Emperor of Mexico: In Austria, he was known as an art collector and idealist. In Mexico, he was a colonialist aggressor responsible for thousands of deaths. And in France, he lost an empire. But who was the real Archduke Maximilian? Join us as we examine the brief and contentious reign of the last emperor of Mexico, a complex and conflicted member of the powerful Habsburg family, from his royal childhood in Vienna to his alliance with Napoleon III, who wanted to expand his empire to the Western Hemisphere. Maximilian I of Mexico – Last Emperor of

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Horror in the East

History / 1 minute of reading / May 9, 2019 / By HDclump

Horror in the East: two-part documentary on Japan at war, examining the Japanese treatment of Allied prisoners of war. Horror in the East – Turning Against the West Using Japanese archive footage and interviews with both prisoners and their guards, this film investigates why, having treated their POW’s comparatively well during World War I, their attitudes had altered so dramatically by World War II. Horror in the East – Death Before Surrender Conclusion of a two-part documentary on Japan at war, examining why, when the Second World War turned against Japan, so many Japanese soldiers chose

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Dunkirk

History / 2 minutes of reading / May 8, 2019 / By HDclump

Docudrama about events at Dunkirk in 1940. The Allies are in retreat, but the Navy can only pick up a few soldiers and Churchill is advised to make peace to save the rest. Dunkirk used archive film footage, eyewitness accounts and original dramatised sequences to describe the events of the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation. Dunkirk Part 1 – Retreat The Allies in northern France are in retreat, but the Navy only expects to be able to pick up a few soldiers and Churchill is under pressure to make peace in order to save the rest. Alf Tombs’s unit helps

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Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners

History / 2 minutes of reading / May 6, 2019 / By HDclump

In 1834 Britain abolished slavery, a defining and celebrated moment in our national history. What has been largely forgotten is that abolition came at a price. The government of the day took the extraordinary step of compensating the slave owners for loss of their ‘property’, as Britain’s slave owners were paid 17bn GBP in today’s money, whilst the slaves received nothing. Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners – Profit and Loss part 1 For nearly 200 years, the meticulous records that detail this story have lain in the archives virtually unexamined – until now. In an exclusive partnership with

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Great War Horses

History / 3 minutes of reading / February 10, 2019 / By HDclump

Great War Horses: the horses that provided the backbone of the Australian Light Horse regiments in World War I were popularly known as Walers. Bred for Australia’s tough Outback conditions, Walers were well-equipped for the harsh climate and terrain of the Middle East, where the ANZAC forces faced the armies of the Ottoman Empire. Great War Horses is a powerful, moving account of the men and horses of the Australian Light Horse and the pivotal role they played in World War I at the Battle of Romani (1916), the celebrated Light Horse charge at the Battle of Beersheba

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The Vietnam War episode 10 – The Weight of Memory

History / 2 minutes of reading / January 29, 2019 / By HDclump

The Vietnam War episode 10 – The Weight of Memory In The Vietnam War episode 10: while the Watergate scandal rivets Americans’ attention and forces President Nixon to resign, the Vietnamese continue to savage one another in a brutal civil war. When hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese troops pour into the south, Saigon descends rapidly into chaos and collapses. For the next 40 years, Americans and Vietnamese from all sides search for healing and reconciliation. In an immersive 360-degree narrative, Burns and Novick tell the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told

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The Vietnam War episode 9

History / 2 minutes of reading / January 28, 2019 / By HDclump

The Vietnam War episode 9 – A Disrespectful Loyalty In The Vietnam War episode 9, South Vietnamese forces fighting on their own in Laos suffer a terrible defeat. Massive U.S. airpower makes the difference in halting an unprecedented North Vietnamese offensive. After being re-elected in a landslide, Nixon announces Hanoi has agreed to a peace deal. American prisoners of war will finally come home – to a bitterly divided country. In an immersive 360-degree narrative, Burns and Novick tell the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film. THE VIETNAM WAR features

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The Vietnam War episode 8

History / 2 minutes of reading / January 27, 2019 / By HDclump

The Vietnam War episode 8 – The History of the World In The Vietnam War episode 8 – with morale plummeting in Vietnam, President Nixon begins withdrawing American troops. As news breaks of an unthinkable massacre committed by American soldiers, the public debates the rectitude of the war, while an incursion into Cambodia reignites antiwar protests with tragic consequences. In an immersive 360-degree narrative, Burns and Novick tell the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film. THE VIETNAM WAR features testimony from nearly 80 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the

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