The 1940s • 2017 • episode "S1E3" • America in Colour

58:53

Dr Helen Castor explores the life - and death - of Joan of Arc. Joan was an extraordinary figure - a female warrior in an age that believed women couldn't fight, let alone lead an army. But Joan was driven by faith, and today more than ever we are acutely aware of the power of faith to drive actions for good or ill. Since her death, Joan has become an icon for almost everyone - the left and the right, Catholics and Protestants, traditionalists and feminists. But where in all of this is the real Joan - the experiences of a teenage peasant girl who achieved the seemingly impossible? Through an astonishing manuscript, we can hear Joan's own words at her trial, and as Helen unpicks Joan's story and places her back in the world that she inhabited, the real human Joan emerges.

2015 • History

44:10

Summer 1945. Leaving the atrocities of World War II behind, the Allied nations wholeheartedly celebrate victory and enjoy a return to world peace. But, behind the scenes of the post-war era, a more drawn-out, insidious confrontation is in the making between those who must build the world of tomorrow. In the West, the Americans and the British are concerned about Stalin's growing power in the East. He no longer hides his expansionist designs. Communist ideology continues to spread, especially in Indochina, where one of the twentieth century's longest conflicts is in the works. In this former French colony, Ho Chi Minh will emerge as the great figure of the Vietnamese struggle for independence. This convinced Communist clandestinely formed a small army which was going to fight the French troops sent to reconquer the territory in 1946. But behind this seemingly isolated conflict lie other issues, through which the Western world and the Communist bloc will soon clash. Especially since the Americans experimented in the summer of 1945 with a new extremely effective and terribly destructive weapon: the atomic bomb. It is the cold war, the war of the worlds, that threatens mankind with a new apocalypse.

S1E1 • Apocalypse: War of Worlds 1945-1991 • 2019 • History

63:59

Leveraging charisma, propaganda, and loyal followers, Hitler climbs the political ladder and pushes Germany toward violent authoritarian rule.

S1E2 • Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial • 2024 • History

25:27

The Story of Aerial Photographic Reconnaissance The fascinating story with newly released footage on how flying high and fast, and often unarmed, aircraft brought back valuable intelligence on the enemy in both war and peace. Sometimes they did not return. We have come a long way since the first few silk-suited aerostiers of the French revolution ascended in tethered balloons to scan the battlefield through wobbly telescopes. In just 230 years, humanity has progressed from its first faltering flights to the capability to photograph from space an object the size of a grapefruit - a testament both to technological progress and our need to keep a close eye on the world around us. From the days of artillery-spotting balloons the extensive use of aerial reconnaissance began in the Great War and has continued throughout wartime and peacetime. Newly released footage shows the dangers that these planes faced flying high and fast in enemy territory. Many of these reconnaissance planes were unarmed with only their wits to guide them safely back home. Some however never returned.

18/20 • The True Action Adventures of the Twentieth Century • 1996 • History

54:11

Learn how six dictators, from Mussolini to Saddam Hussein, shaped the 20th century. How did they seize and lose power? What forces were against them? Learn the answers in these six immersive hours, each a revealing portrait of brutality and power In Episode Three see why Benito Mussolini was considered a pioneer among 20th century dictators. From undermining judges to indoctrinating children, he forged key tactics for seizing power. He also created fascism, an ideology that would plunge Europe into darkness.

S1E3 • The Dictator's Playbook • 2019 • History

220:41

Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. The twelve years that composed the post-war Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of our democracy, with millions of former slaves and free black people seeking out their rightful place as equal citizens under the law. Though tragically short-lived, this bold democratic experiment was, in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois, a 'brief moment in the sun' for African Americans, when they could advance and achieve education, exercise their right to vote, and run for and win public office.

2019 • History