Saturday, July 13, 2013

My favorite history documentaries




Ancient history

Egypt's Golden Empire (PBS Empires) - 2 ½ hours

Michael Wood's In Search of the Trojan War (BBC) - 6 hours

The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization (PBS Empires) - 2 ½ hours

Bettany Hughes' The Spartans (shown on PBS) - 3 hours

Bettany Hughes' Athens: The Dawn of Democracy (shown on PBS) - 2 hours

Michael Wood's In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (BBC) - 4 hours

Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire (History Channel) - 10 hours

Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 6 hours

The Roman Empire in the First Century (PBS Empires) - 3 ½ hours

The Germanic Tribes (German-made) - 4 hours


Art history

Great Epochs of European Art: Art of the Ancient Greeks & Romans (German-made) - 2 hours

The Dark Ages: An Age of Light (BBC) - 4 hours

Kenneth Clark's Civilisation (BBC) - 11 hours

The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (PBS Empires) - 4 hours

Civilizations (BBC, shown on PBS) - 9 hours


Religious history

The Buddha: The Story of Siddhartha (PBS) - 2 hours

Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites (PBS Empires) - 4 hours

Simon Schama's The Story of the Jews (shown on PBS) - 5 hours

Jerusalem: Center of the World (PBS) - 2 hours


Ancient Roads from Christ to Constantine (shown on PBS) - 5 ½ hours

The Life of Muhammad (BBC, shown on PBS) - 3 hours

Islam: Empire of Faith (PBS Empires) - 3 hours

Martin Luther (PBS Empires) - 2 hours

David Starkey's Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant (requires code-free DVD player) - 3 hours

David Starkey's The Six Wives of Henry VIII - 3 hours


The Middle Ages

Byzantium: The Lost Empire (The Learning Channel) - 3 ½ hours

The Dark Ages (History Channel) - 1 ½ hours

Michael Wood's In Search of the Dark Ages (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 6 hours

Vikings: The Real Warriors (BBC) - 3 hours

The Normans (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 3 hours

The Normans: The Complete Epic Saga (privately made) - 3 hours

The Crusades (BBC) - 3 hours

The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross (History Channel) - 3 hours

The Plague (History Channel) - 1 ½ hours (often available as bonus feature for The Dark Ages)

The Plantagenets (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 3 hours


Britain's Bloody Crown (British-made) - 3 hours

The Wars of the Roses: A Bloody Crown (British-made) - 2 hours

The Stuarts & The Stuarts in Exile (BBC, this part is technically post-Middle-Ages, requires code-free DVD player) - 5 hours


History of the British Isles generally

Simon Schama's A History of Britain (BBC, with American financing) - 15 hours

David Starkey's Monarchy (U. K.) (British-made) - 17 hours

Michael Wood's Story of England (BBC) - 6 hours

Frank Delaney's The Celts (BBC) - 6 hours

Neil Oliver's A History of Scotland (BBC Scotland) - 10 hours

Huw Edwards' The Story of Wales (BBC Wales) - 6 hours

Fergal Keane's The Story of Ireland (BBC Northern Ireland) - 5 hours

Andrew Marr's Modern Britain 1901-2007 (BBC - requires code-free DVD player) - 10 hours


Specific countries and regions (outside of the British Isles)

Alistair Cooke's America: A Personal History of the United States (BBC, requires code-free DVD player) - 10 hours

Canada: A People's History (CBC and Société de Radio-Canada) - 32 hours

Australia: The Story of Us (Australian-made - requires code-free DVD player) - 6 hours

Africa's Great Civilizations (PBS) - 6 hours

Michael Wood's The Story of India (BBC) - 6 hours

Michael Wood's The Story of China (BBC) - 6 hours

Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire (PBS Empires) - 2 ½ hours


History of the English language

Melvyn Bragg's The Adventure of English (British-made) - 6 hours


Famous reigning queens

David Starkey's Elizabeth (Elizabeth the First, British-made) - 3 hours

Catherine the Great (PBS) - 2 hours

Queen Victoria's Empire (PBS Empires) - 3 ½ hours


Early Latin America

In Search of History: The Aztec Empire (History Channel) - 1 hour

Breaking the Maya Code (PBS) - 2 hours

Michael Wood's Conquistadors (BBC, shown on PBS) - 4 hours


Colonial America

Secrets of the Dead: Jamestown's Dark Winter (PBS) - 1 hour

The Pilgrims (PBS) - 2 hours

The Seven Years' War (French and Indian War)

The War That Made America (PBS) - 4 hours


The American Revolution (the War of Independence)

Overviews of the war

Liberty! The American Revolution (PBS) - 6 hours

History Channel's "The Revolution" - 10 hours

Rebels & Redcoats: How Britain Lost America - 4 hours

American Revolution biographies

Muffie Meyer's Benjamin Franklin (PBS) - 3 hours

George Washington the Warrior (History Channel) - 1 ½ hours

Founding Fathers (History Channel) - 3 hours

Founding Brothers (History Channel) - 3 hours

John and Abigail Adams (PBS) - 2 hours

Thomas Jefferson (PBS, Ken Burns) - 3 hours


Frontier exploration

Lewis and Clark (PBS, Ken Burns) - 4 hours


The French Revolution/Napoleonic Era

Versailles (French documentary, with episode about King Louis XVI - requires code-free DVD player) - 9 hours

Marie Antoinette (PBS) - 2 hours

The French Revolution (History Channel) - 1 ½ hours

Napoleon (PBS Empires) - 4 hours


The War of 1812 (North America)

The War of 1812 (PBS) - 2 hours - available online

Dolley Madison (PBS) - 1 ½ hours

Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil, and the Presidency (PBS) - 2 hours - available on YouTube


The Mexican-American War

The U.S.-Mexican War 1846-1848 - 4 hours - available on YouTube - link to first half

The Civil War (overview by PBS, Ken Burns) - 11 hours

Reconstruction: The Second Civil War (PBS) - 3 hours

Civil War biographies

Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided (PBS) - 6 hours

Jefferson Davis (privately made) - 3 ½ hours

Ulysses S. Grant (PBS) - 3 ½ hours


Various other topics

The Congress (PBS, Ken Burns) - 1 ½ hours

Modern Marvels: The Suez Canal (History Channel) - 1 hour

Murder of a President: James A. Garfield (PBS) - 2 hours

Mark Twain (PBS, Ken Burns) - 3 ½ hours

New York Underground (PBS) - 1 hour

Crucible of Empire: the Spanish-American War (PBS) - 2 hours

The Boer War (British-made - requires code-free DVD player) - 1 ½ hours

Panama Canal (PBS) - 1 ½ hours


War of the Worlds (PBS) - 1 hour

Ken Burns' Hemingway (PBS) - 6 hours


History of American business

The Men Who Built America (History Channel) - 6 hours

The Gilded Age (PBS) - 2 hours

The Circus (PBS) - 4 hours

Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People (PBS) - 1 ½ hours

Edison: The Father of Invention (PBS) - 2 hours

Tesla: Master of Lightning (PBS) - 1 ½ hours

Citizen Hearst (PBS) - 3 ½ hours

Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (PBS, Ken Burns) - 2 hours

Henry Ford (PBS) - 2 hours - available online

Walt Disney (PBS) - 4 hours

Silicon Valley (PBS) - 1 ½ hours


World War One

The Great War (BBC, interviews veterans) - 17 hours

World War One (CBS, the complete story) - 10 hours

The Great War (PBS, focuses on America) - 6 hours

Biographies of major figures

Woodrow Wilson (PBS) - 3 hours

Coverage of particular portions of the war

The Storm That Swept Mexico (PBS) - 2 hours - available on YouTube

The Irish Rebellion 1916 (PBS) - 3 hours

Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World (PBS) - 2 hours

Influenza 1918 (PBS, American Experience) - 1 hour

Paris 1919: Inside the Peace Talks That Changed the World (Canadian-made) - 1 ½ hours


World War Two (my main posts and my other posts)

The Road to War (BBC) - 3 hours

War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin (BBC) - 3 ½ hours

Allied powers

ANZAC: Australians at War in World War Two (Australian-made) - 10 hours

Canada at War (Canadian-made, World War Two) - 6 hours

The War (PBS, Ken Burns) - 15 hours (focuses on United States in World War Two)

BBC History of World War II - 30 hours (technically a collection of different World War II documentaries)

The World at War (British-made, World War Two) - 23 hours (an actual unified history, which talks about the major powers on both sides)

Axis powers

The Nazis: A Warning from History (BBC) - 5 hours



Biographies of Allied leaders

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (PBS) - 4 hours - available online

Eleanor Roosevelt (PBS) - 2 ½ hours

Winston Churchill (British-made) - 3 hours

Harry Truman (PBS) - 4 hours - available online

Dwight D. Eisenhower (PBS) - 2 ½ hours


The Cold War (other)

The Cold War (CNN) - 18 hours

The Korean War (Timeless Media Group) - 5 hours

The Vietnam War (PBS, Ken Burns) - 18 ½ hours

Cold War political biographies (other)

John F. Kennedy (PBS) - 3 ½ hours

Robert F. Kennedy (PBS) - 2 hours

Lyndon B. Johnson (PBS) - 3 ½ hours - available online

Richard Nixon (PBS) - 2 ½ hours - available online


Ethnic history

Black in Latin America (PBS) - 4 hours

Native America (PBS) - 3 ½ hours

Asian Americans (PBS) - 5 hours

The Jewish Americans (PBS) - 6 hours

The Latino Americans (PBS) - 6 hours


Jackie Robinson (PBS, Ken Burns) - 4 hours

The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela (PBS Frontline) - 2 hours


General American history in the 20th century

Baseball (PBS miniseries, Ken Burns) - 19 hours

Jazz (PBS miniseries, Ken Burns) - 19 hours


2 comments:

  1. I bought "The Rape of Europa" the documentary that inspired Monument Men, but haven't watched it yet. (Bought the book, too.)

    ReplyDelete