Audio-Visual Materials: D: History: General & Old World

4 Discs

Ancient cities are now accurately and beautifully rebuilt, using all new research and CGI. Places and events explored include the battle at Stirling Bridge, Romania's real life Dracula, the Biblical Jerusalem, lost city of Atlantis, and more.

3 Discs

Gives students an authentic-looking step back in time to visit the lost cities and temples of the ancient world.

3 Discs

Gives students an authentic-looking step back in time to visit the lost cities and temples of the ancient world.

Between the Fall of Rome and the dawn of the Renaissance, Europe plunged into a dark night of constant war, splintered sovereignties, marauding pagans, and more. As chaos replaced culture, Europe was beset by famine, plague, persecutions, and a state of war that was so persistent it was only rarely interrupted by peace. This program covers warlords whose armies threatened to cause the demise of European society, such as Alaric, Charles the Hammer, and Clovis; and the people who valiantly tended the flames of justice, knowledge, and innovation, including Charlemagne, St. Benedict, Empress Theodora, and other brave souls who fought for peace and enlightenment.

Describes the First Crusade, beginning with Pope Urban's speech at Clermont in 1095 and ending with the taking of Jerusalem and the slaughter of all its inhabitants. Examines the irony implicit in the concept of a holy war. Explores the motives of the crusaders and introduces the leading figures of the crusade.

7 Discs

Explores the pivotal battles, profiles the commanders, and chronicles the myriad ways in which war has shaped the modern world. The 26 episodes in this monumental set draw on an encyclopedic collection of archival film dating back to 1896 to create an unforgettable visual record of every major engagement from WWI to the liberation of Kuwait.

T.E. Lawrence helped unify the Arab tribes against the Turks during World War I, but he also set in motion a chain of events that even he would be powerless to stop, events that would shape Arab-Western relations for generations to come.

2 Discs

Great blunders of WWII exposes the fatal errors, startling miscues, and bungled opportunities which turned the tide of the war and forever changed the course of history.

Images of World War II from archives around the world. Covers the Second World War from the islands of the Pacific to the frozen Steppes of Russia.

The Nazi extermination of Jews is examined through interviews of survivors, witnesses and perpetrators and through footage of the sites of the death camps and environs as they appear today. Those interviewed include Jewish survivors of the death camps and the Warsaw ghetto uprising, Polish farmers and villagers who lived near the camps and Nazis who worked in the camps and the ghettos.

Traces the experiences of five Hungarian Holocaust survivors who fell victim to Hitler's brutal war against the Jews during the final days of World War II, and returned to their hometowns and ghettos and the concentration camps in which they were imprisoned.

Ten years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, this piece documents the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek. One of the first cinematic reflections on the horrors of the Holocaust and contrasts the stillness of the abandoned camps' quiet, empty buildings with haunting wartime footage.

Perl spent WWII in charge of the woman's infirmary at Auschwitz. Hoping to leave her nightmares behind her after the liberation, she applies for American citizenship in 1946. However, she is hauled into military court to explain how much she "collaborated" with the Nazis during the war. The U.S. officials are especially disturbed by the number of illegal abortions Perl performed at the camp. Perl struggles to explain how she terminated the lives of the unborn to save thousands of pregnant women from the gas chambers.

A series of five historical films about human courage, heroism, and triumph among the deepest of adversity during World War II.

A history of the pilots who faced discrimination in their effort to fly combat aircraft for their country.

20 Discs

A detailed look at the touchstone moments, memorable figures and formative events of the 20th century, The Decades 20th Century Collection offers over 60 hours of programming on 20 discs - a survey unmatched in breadth and depth of the explosive years from 1900-1999.

Traces the step-by-step creation of modern Germany and suggests its implications for the rest of the world. Presents a dramatized interview with Otto Von Bismark, who recollects the steps which led to Germany's unification, as told in a series of flashbacks.

Looks at what it means to be a Muslim in the 21st century. Filmed in Egypt, Malaysia, Iran, Turkey, Nigeria and the United States, this program explores the influence of culture and politics on religion, looks at the political forces at work among Muslims around the world, emphasizes Islam's kinship with Christianity and Judaism, and examines the diverse interpretations of Islam among the Muslim people.

"Obsession is a film about the threat of Radical Islam to Western civilization. Using unique footage from Arab television, it reveals an "insider's view" of the hatred the Radicals are teaching, their incitement of global jihad, and their goal of world domination. The film also traces the parallels between the nazi movement of World War II, the Radicals of today, and the Western world's response to both threats."

First revealed to the world through impromptu photographs taken by U.S. soldiers stationed within the facility, this documentary investigates the story and causes behind the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Involving apparent wide-scale abuse and torture of prisoners, the photos forced attention on the decisions and actions that turned the once-notorious Iraqi prison into an even more notorious U.S.-run detainment center. One of the most dramatic moments in recent U.S. military history is examined through interviews with participants and dramatic reenactments.

"When allied troops invaded Germany and liberated Nazi death camps at the end of World War II, they found unspeakable horrors that still haunt the world's conscience. In 1945, British and American film crews accompanying the troops liberating the camps captured these atrocities firsthand. The resulting film directed in part by Alfred Hitchcock but never finished, was discovered by Frontline in 1984 in the archives of the Imperial War Museum. Sixty years after the war ended, Frontline now re-broadcasts this powerful memorial in its entirety"

In this eye-opening documentary, inside sources and restricted material expose the role of the United States and the Soviet Union in empowering, and in many ways creating, the Taliban.

Shows how the revolt of Parliament against Charles I in the 1640's, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans, destroyed the absolute power of the English monarchy and directed the country on the road to parliamentary democracy.

Dramatization of the life of Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn. As a young woman, Elizabeth is faced with imprisonment and worse, but she prevails over vicious court intrigues and secures her claim to the throne. As Queen, she faces the continuing threat from Mary, Queen of Scots, an impending royal wedding that would unite England and France, and a palace insurrection involving a former court favorite.

Dramatizations and narrated sequences. First in a series on the shaping of the western world. In this segment, the magnificent age of Greece is recreated through the words and deeds of its citizens. Portrays the philosophical and moral debates of Greece's Golden Age which relate to the concerns of contemporary civilization through excerpts from theatrical masterpieces, Antigone by Sophocles and Lysistrata by Aristophenes as well as dramatic portrayals of Socrates' arguments on liberty and laws and other themes. Concludes with Socrates' decreed death and the reasons behind it.

In the year 334 BC, a 20-year-old military commander from northern Greece set out to conquer what was then the known world. His name was King Alexander of Macedon. During the next 12 years, he led 40,000 troops more than 20,000 miles, defeating the most powerful ruler on Earth, King Darius of Persia, and conquering all of Asia. He died of a battle wound at the age of 32, but his conquests have been celebrated and studied for more than 2,000 years.

Darfur eyewitness: former United States Marine Brian Steidle describes what he saw while in Darfur with the African Union Monitoring Force. March 2005, 10 min. -- Staring genocide in the face: Jerry Fowler, director of the Committee on Conscience, relates stories told by Darfurian refugees in Chad. May 2004, 7 min.

"The French Revolution' is a ... documentary that encapsulates this heady (and often headless) period in Western civilization. With dramatic reenactments, paintings from the era, and revealing accounts from journals and expert historians, 'The French Revolution' vividly unfurls in a maelstrom of violence. King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Maximilien Robespierre, and Napoleon Bonaparte lead a cast of thousands ..."--Container.

Dramatizes the ways in which the noble motives and legitimate causes of the French Revolution managed to spiral into a reign of terror, as the revolutionaries' original goals become overshadowed by the radical tactics of Maximilien Robespierre and other leaders.

Focuses on the fall of the Bastille to show how a weak, bankrupt king's effort to raise money unleashed the first total revolution in history. Examines what makes an ordinary man leave his daily tasks and take part in a revolution.

Explores the causes of Napoleon's downfall, including his country's weariness with war and tyranny. Explains some of the new spirit of nationalism throughout Europe.

Portrays the kind of political and social chaos from which dictators draw their strength, and shows how military victories built the popularity of Napoleon.

Provides an in-depth account of the country's history from 1924-53, the period of Stalin's rule. Told in ten parts, this astonishing documentary provides the real-life pictures, the witnesses, the documents, and the footage, and gives a remarkable insight into what led to the death of sixty-five million Soviets during Stalin's reign of terror.