A review of “Civilizations”

A modern series inspired by Kenneth Clark’s “Civilisation” (which aired in 1969) …

Before watching this program, I knew next to nothing about the visual arts – and, to a large degree, I still don’t. Although I have watched the original “Civilisation” series by Kenneth Clark – which this series was “inspired by,” in the words of its DVD case – I can claim no expertise on its subject matter. Nonetheless, I am a history buff, and am very interested in world history to boot. More to the point, I loved the original Kenneth Clark series from 1969, and wanted to see if this series would be as good as the original. Sadly, though, I did not see this modern reboot as it was originally shown on the BBC. I watched the PBS version, which made some major changes from the BBC source material. Most significantly, it featured the narration of actor Liev Schreiber throughout the series, which is not as good as that of the three scholars who were hosting this program. Their influence is still evident here, because their own talking-head pieces are still used even by PBS. But the narration was completely taken over by Liev Schreiber, and I found his narration to be less to my liking than the original clips from the three scholars.

The Taj Mahal, an Indo-Islamic building

A review of Simon Schama's “The Story of the Jews”

“For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”

– The Hebrew Bible, “The Fifth Book of Moses Called Deuteronomy,” Chapter 7, Verse 6 (as translated by the King James Version of the Bible)

This is more of an ethnic history than a religious history …

Before watching this series, I had watched another documentary by the same filmmaker, which was Simon Schama's “A History of Britain.” Since Mr. Schama is also British, this was a television history of his own country, and was an inside perspective. This film is similar, because Simon Schama is Jewish, and can thus give an inside perspective on his own ethnic group. He is clearly familiar with the Hebrew language, and he displays this fluency at a number of times throughout this series. But as it turns out, not all ethnic Jews are of the Jewish faith, so there is thus a difference between being ethnically Jewish, culturally Jewish, and religiously Jewish. Mr. Schama is clearly ethnically Jewish and culturally Jewish, but may not be religiously Jewish. Thus, he has struck some as an odd choice to make this series. But considering how many ethnic Jews would match this description, it seems like it works for me. If you want to learn more about their faith, this film will give you some useful background; but you might actually be better off turning to some other source, for this particular kind of information. This is more of an ethnic history than a religious history, and pays only minimal attention to the history of Judaism. Nonetheless, it is still quite good for what it does have to offer.

A review of Simon Schama’s “A History of Britain”

"That the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland shall upon the First day of May which shall be in the year One thousand seven hundred and seven and for ever after be united into one Kingdom by the name of Great Britain ... "

- "Union with Scotland Act of 1706," Article I (passed by the Parliament of England, and later made official by the "Union with England Act of 1707," passed by the Parliament of Scotland)

I should preface this review, for my international readers, by saying that I am an American; but an American of mostly British descent, whose ancestors come mainly from England and Scotland. (England and Scotland today are both part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.) I identify strongly with Britain; not only because of my ancestry, but because Britons and Americans share common values such as freedom and democracy; and because we have been allies in war and peace for over two centuries; not fighting a war against each other since 1815 (the year the War of 1812 ended). Thus, I am much interested in the history of Great Britain, and thought I'd learn a little bit more about it by watching this series.