The longterm effects of war | The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century [VHS]

Best World War One Documentary | The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century [VHS] | Kevin Brownlow, Laura Downs

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	• The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century [VHS] Kevin Brownlow, Laura Downs Pbs Home Video, 1998 average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Don't worry about DVD version

This is the finest documentary on the first world war that I have ever seen. It is essential learning for an understanding of the events that are unfolding before us today. When I first purchased this series on VHS it cost me + $80.00. As you can see now, the price is almost double. The good news is that with an inexpensive DVD recorder these tapes duplicate nicely. Sadly, I don't believe we'll ever see documentaries of this quality again on TV in the U.S.

The longterm effects of war

I saw this series on PBS several years ago. It is one that I still remember. The series provided an overview of WWI including the factors leading to the start of the war to the effects of the war on people and events of the 20th and 21st centuries. Some of the events of this war are still affecting the foreign policy of the current time.

The pictures are graphic, but so are any available pictures of actual combat. The companion book looked at some of the art of the time. One artist's rendition of the war was so "out there" that people did not know he was depicting the horrors of the war he had observed. One of the pictures in this series shows an actual photo of what the artist depicted.
WAR is indeed HELL. This series may be disconcerting to those who are not familiar with its real horror, but it helps to explan why we as a species and a nation should never go to war unless our very lives depend on it.

This war was started by fullfilling alliance agreements. It changed the world completely and it has never been the same. Like the US Civil War, its end helped to cause WWII.

Like others I wish this series would come out on DVD. I have been waiting for it for some time.

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Best World War One Documentary

This is by far the best WWI documentary. I have seen a bunch of others, but this one adds the intangibles that the others don't: perspectives, art, depression, grappling with issues and the war itself. Also, PBS offers an incredible website that goes along with the documentaries. They need to come out with a DVD series of this ASAP.

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A Well Done and Very Relevant Series

I really enjoyed this series. I learned a lot from it; I'm very disappointed it's not on DVD or at least shown on PBS currently; and I think it would be very good and acceptable to show to students.

Some are upset because the series left out many aspects of the war. But the thesis statement of the series was "WWI marked the first use of chemical weapons, the first mass bombardment of civilians from the sky, and the century's first genocide." All of these things were talked about and are modern issues we still deal with, so a viewer can relate to the program. It would have been nice if more had been covered, but no one program can do it all. Much like the intro statement to Ken Burns' WWII series "The War" which reminds us that the subject is immense and no one program can tell it all, the same is true here.

A lot of things I did not know- I didn't know about the suffragist movement in Britain before the war. I didn't know about the Christmas Truce of 1914. Or about the genocide of Armenian Christians or the French Army's mass mutiny of 1917. And I've never seen a WWI-WWII program that gave a voice to African French colonials like this one did.

No, this program will not tell you everything about the Great War- no one program has yet. But it has a lot to offer it's viewers. It needs to be available on DVD.

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Why isn't this on DVD

This is one of the best documentaries I have seen and I wish it would be released on DVD> Unfortunately, WWI is considered the dry dusty war where men fought in trenches and has no recognizable villains like Nazis to boo.

As this landmark series demonstrates, the cataclysmic effects of World War I last to this day. "The war to end all wars" has influenced the Atomic Age and the Cold War, and is now shaping the conflicts in Bosnia and the Middle East. Period film footage and eyewitness accounts powerfully dramatize the horrors of trench warfare and the chaos of political revolution. History comes alive as The Great War reveals how World War I influenced the rise of communism, witnessed the first use of weapons of mass destruction, and provided a fertile aftermath for the rise of Nazism. Through perspectives from all sides of the war, the series shows how violent events early in this century still cast a dark shadow on life today. Titles include: "Explosion & Stalemate," "Total War & Slaughter," "Mutiny & Collapse," and "Hatred and Hunger & War Without End."

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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