Institutional Insanity • 2024 • episode "S1E3" • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War

29:45

13th Century: After a unique triumph, Islam became the religion of many peoples - from Spain to Indonesia. But there was no Islamic empire, just as there was no Christian empire. Middle Ages meant: small states, wars of princes and tribes against each other. This episode covers the spreading of Islamic and Arabic culture, which was based on the use of military slaves: children of non-Muslim Turkic peoples were trained to become Islamic elite warriors. Their military triumph not only spread war and the new faith, but also advanced culture: medicine, art, architecture, astronomy - a unique blossoming of knowledge, culture and intellectual freedom penetrated as far as Spain. The real threat to Allah's earthly kingdom came not from Europe, but from the steppes of Asia. The Mongols attacked their enemies ruthlessly, devastatingly and invincible. In 1258 AD, Baghdad, the center of Islamic civilization, fell into their hands. Military conflict accompanied the spread of Islam during the Middle Ages. This program reveals the ironies of that union between war and faith: how Islam was adopted rather than marginalized by invading Mongols; how the rise of strict Islamic orthodoxy countered the scholarly advances of Arabic culture, weakening the empire; and how European appreciation of Islamic culture grew after the Christian 'Reconquista' of the Iberian peninsula. Interviews with respected scholars—including Drs. Raif Georges Khoury of the University of Heidelberg and Patrick Franke of Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg—illuminate key developments in Islam's Mediterranean dominance.

S1E3 • The Holy Wars: War and Religion • 2004 • History

26:00

How He Helped the Arabs to Liberate Their Lands from the Turks The story of T E Lawrence's exploits with the Arabs during the Great War. Hitherto unseen clips of Lawrence riding in the desert with King Faisal and the victorious arrival into Damascus. Thomas Edward Lawrence was dispatched to Arabia in 1915 to support Britain's war effort there. Lawrence grew to love the desert people and their struggle and made it his private agenda to ensure that Britain granted the Arabs independence from Turkey as promised. Lawrence led countless raids on railways, long desert treks and repeated assaults on Gaza. He endured capture and brutal torture that scarred him emotionally and served to bolster his resolve. His heroism made him legendary in Arabia and worldwide. T.E. Lawrence was probably one of the greatest adventurers of the Great War and was immortalised in film by Peter O'Toole. But what was the true story behind this man who helped liberate the Arabs from the Turks? This documentary contains rare footage of Lawrence of Arabia riding with King Faisal at their triumphant arrival into Damascus.

7/20 • The True Action Adventures of the Twentieth Century • 1996 • History

17:24

In the region that includes the Mediterranean, the Aegean, Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Bronze Age arrived about 3000 BC and lasted nearly 2000 years. What singled out this period and the new societies and cities that emerged? The development of formal writing is one among several important factors.

S1E1 • Bronze Age • 2016 • History

67:53

Preparing for war against the Soviet Union, the US starts to test thermonuclear weapons. The CIA forms and interferes with global politics.

S1E3 • Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War • 2024 • History

58:51

In episode two, we discover the golden age of the La Tene Celtic warrior and reveal how their world extended as far as central Turkey. But by the middle of the first century BC, the Celts were under threat from an expanding Roman Empire, and the Gallic warrior Vercingetorix would challenge Julius Caesar in an epic battle that would shape the future of Europe.

S1E2 • The Celts: Blood, Iron, and Sacrifice • 2015 • History

44:41

The numbers will favoured one side, then the other in 1918. When the Bolsheviks took Russia out of the war, millions of German and Austro-Hungarian troops were freed up to attack Britain and Belgium, France and Italy. But across the Atlantic, America was training an army of two-million men.

S01E06 • The Great War in Numbers • 2017 • History