Summary: This classic program presents the Battle of Marathon, Persia's ill-fated campaign against Greece in the aftermath of the Ionian revolt; the Battle of Salamis, where the Greeks decisively defeated the Persian navy; Pericles, "the first citizen of Athens"; and the building of the incomparable Parthenon.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1999
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Summary: After introducing early Athens, this classic program examines the rule of Pisistratus and the growth of Athens, the slide into chaos that followed Pisistratus' death, the alliance between the Athenians and Sparta to overthrow Hippias, and the subsequent Athenian revolution that saw the birth of democracy.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1999
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Summary: Beginning with a spotlight on Socrates, this program addresses the Plague of Athens, which struck like an omen during the second year of the Second Peloponnesian War, and the resounding defeat of the Greek invasion of Syracuse. Socrates' trial and execution complete the program.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1999
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Summary: From his childhood on a kibbutz through his contentious military career, this program presents a biographical sketch of Moshe Dayan. Complex and charismatic, Dayan became a hero and international icon with his aggressive approach to the issue of Palestine - but fell from grace after the Yom Kippur War. Archival footage gives viewers a vivid look at the Middle Eastern conflict in the early 20th...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: During Europe’s Middle Ages, mathematics flourished primarily on other shores. This program follows Professor Marcus du Sautoy as he discusses mathematical achievements of Asia, the Islamic world, and early-Renaissance Europe. Topics include China’s invention of a decimal place number system and the development of an early version of sudoku; India’s contribution to trigonometry and creation of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In the 19th century, English spread throughout the British Empire-but which English? This classic PBS program traces the roots of white Commonwealth English to Cockney, the language of London's working class. Explaining the influence of Cockney on modern, standardized speech, the program shows how, in fact, the accents of BBC English are gradually becoming modified by Cockney speech...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In this program, Robert Winston focuses on monotheism as he continues to examine the building blocks of faith and humankind's quest to plumb the nature of God. Visits to Mt. Sinai, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, St. Peter's Basilica, Mecca, and the Abalfazl and Imam Mosques, Isfahan, shed light on the beliefs that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The fifth installment of Michael Wood's journey through Indian history moves on to the time of the Renaissance in Europe, when India was the richest, most populous civilization in the world. The major focus is on the history of the Mogul Empire, its legacy, and the rulers most readily associated with it: the redoubtable Babur, founder of the Mogul dynasty, and his grandson Akbar the Great. The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: In this program, Professor Marcus du Sautoy addresses mathematical advances of 20th-century Europe and America. Topics include Georg Cantor’s exploration of the concept of infinity; chaos theory, formulated by Henri Poincaré; Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorems; the work of André Weil and his colleagues with algebraic geometry; and the influence of Alexander Grothendieck, whose ideas have...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Gullah-the African-influenced dialect of Georgia's Sea Islands-has undergone few changes since the first slave ships landed 300 years ago, and provides a clear window into the shaping of African-American English. This classic PBS program traces that story from the west coast of Africa through the American South, then to large northern cities in the 1920s. Studying the origins of West African...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The second installment of Michael Wood's journey through Indian history covers the Age of Buddha, the incursions of the ancient Greeks, and the rule of Emperor Ashoka as they relate to the enduring power of Indian ideas. Drawing upon archaeology, living traditions, legends, and India's "Rosetta stone," Wood explores the imperishable principle of nonviolence and the tenets of Buddhism as he...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: English is a language spoken by two billion people, perhaps even more. This classic PBS program examines the prevalence of English in the world today and presents a historical overview of its rise. Focusing on the expansion of the British Empire and the emergence of English-language mass media, the program explains how widespread English usage survived Britain's post-WWII decolonization,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: By the Scientific Revolution, great strides had been made in understanding the geometry of objects fixed in time and space; the race was now on to discover the mathematics of objects in motion. In this program, Professor Marcus du Sautoy investigates mathematical progress during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries in Europe. Topics include the linking of algebra and geometry by René Descartes;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Will modern science close the book on God, or can reason and faith coexist? This program analyzes how the process of scientific inquiry has challenged belief in a divine being. With visits to locations ranging from the CERN particle physics lab, to the Lourdes shrine, to Grace Fellowship Church, Kentucky, Robert Winston discusses the views of Pascal, Galileo, Newton, and Darwin; the Higgs...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Curiosity is often the driving force behind great discoveries. In this program, Friedemann Schrenk teams up with Meave Leakey to examine fossil specimens recovered at Lake Turkana, Lothagam, and Kanapoi, where they discuss the relationships between Australopithicus afarensis, A. boisei, and Homo habilis. Dr. Schrenk also visits the Nairobi Museum, the Anatomical Institute in Dar es Salaam, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores mathematical milestones of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. Topics include Egypt's unusual method of multiplication and division, as well as Egyptians' understanding of binary numbers, fractions, and solids such as the pyramid; Babylon's base-60 number system - the foundation of minutes and hours - and Babylonians' use of quadratic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Irish experience reflects two language traditions, English and Gaelic. This classic PBS program shows how English was first established in Ireland in the 17th century and how, in cases of violent cultural conflict, language can function as a weapon. Exploring the west of Ireland today, the program identifies traces of Irish Celtic culture, despite the historical decline of the Gaelic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: As the landscape of the New World awakened England's imagination, so did a new landscape of words-in the English of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible. This classic PBS program describes the spread of English to North America and explains how Shakespeare's prodigious vocabulary filled the language with startling new words, phrases, and constructions. Recording strong echoes of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: At the time of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West and the Dark Ages that followed, India experienced a series of great flowerings of culture, both in the north and the south. In this program, Michael Wood shows viewers some of the amazing achievements of India during this time. Breakthroughs in astronomy and mathematics, mastery of wrought iron and bronze technologies, island conquests...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Beginning at the Gargas Caves, France-humankind's first house of worship?-this program seeks to understand why our ancestors began to believe in one or more divinities and how, through the ages, different cultures have expressed that belief. Great mysteries such as death and nature are considered as factors in the evolution of religious faith as Robert Winston, archaeologist Jean Clottes, The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Both westward expansion and 19th-century immigration affected the development of a uniquely American English. This classic PBS program tells the story of that burgeoning dialect, from the Revolutionary War to the 1920s. Beginning with the Declaration of Independence, the program depicts the determination of American radicals-dictionary author Noah Webster among them-to achieve linguistic as...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program looks at identity and the roots of India's famous "unity in diversity." Using all the tools available to the historical detective-archaeology, cultural anthropology, climatology, DNA research, and more-Michael Wood takes viewers to Kerala to witness surviving human sounds and rituals that predate spoken language; to a village in Tamil Nadu where everyone still bears the genetic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, Michael Wood tells how a foreign multinational, Britain's East India Company, gradually and almost by chance took power over great swathes of the Indian subcontinent; how after the shock of the 1857 Sepoy Rebellion, the British state assumed total control over the country and transformed it into the Raj; and how the freedom movement, epitomized by Mahatma Gandhi, succeeded in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Will standard English, as it was known in the 20th century, disappear? Will English continue as the global tongue, or will its numerous varieties become, as offshoots of Latin did, a host of mutually unintelligible languages? This classic PBS program features new varieties of English that have transcended British and American influence. The program focuses on some of the most successful...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007