A History of Britain

Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama’s Complete History of Britain does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the turbulent events which buffeted and shaped the British Isles.

What Schama does do, however, is tell the story in vivid and gripping narrative terms, free of the fustiness of traditional academe, personalizing key historical events by examining the major characters at the center of them.

Not all historians would approve of the history depicted here as shaped principally by the actions of great men and women rather than by more abstract developments, but Schama’s way of telling it is a good deal more enthralling as a result.

A study of the history of the British Isles, each of the 15 episodes allows Schama to examine a particular period and tell of its events in his own style.

1. Beginnings: 3100 BC – 1000 AD. Simon Schama starts his story in the stone age village of Skara Brae, Orkney. Over the next four thousand years Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Danes, and Christian missionaries arrive, fight, settle and leave their mark on what will become the nations of Britain.

2. Conquest: 1000–1087. 1066 is not the best remembered date in British history for nothing. In the space of nine hours whilst the Battle of Hastings raged, everything changed. Anglo-Saxon England became Norman and, for the next 300 years, its fate was decided by dynasties of Norman rulers.

3. Dynasty: 1087–1216. There is no saga more powerful than that of the warring dynasty – domineering father, beautiful, scheming mother and squabbling, murderous sons and daughters, (particularly the nieces). In the years that followed the Norman Conquest, this was the drama played out on the stage of British history.

4. Nations: 1216–1348, this is the epic account of how the nations of Britain emerged from under the hammer of England’s “Longshanks” King Edward I, with a sense of who and what they were, which endures to this day.

5. King death: 1348–1500. It took only six years for the plague to ravage the British Isles. Its impact was to last for generations. But from the ashes of this trauma an unexpected and unique class of Englishmen emerged.

6. Burning convictions: 1500–1558. Here Simon Schama charts the upheaval caused as a country renowned for its piety, whose king styled himself Defender of the Faith, turns into one of the most aggressive proponents of the new Protestant faith.

7. The body of the Queen: 1558–1603. This is the story of two queens: Elizabeth I of England, the consummate politician, and Mary I, Queen of Scots, the Catholic mother. It is also the story of the birth of a nation.

8. The British wars: 1603–1649. The turbulent civil wars of the early seventeenth century would culminate in two events unique to British history; the public execution of a king and the creation of a republic. Schama tells of the brutal war that tore the country in half and created a new Britain – divided by politics and religion and dominated by the first truly modern army, fighting for ideology, not individual leaders.

9. Revolutions: 1649–1689. Political and religious revolutions racked Britain after Charles I’s execution, when Britain was a joyless, kingless republic led by Oliver Cromwell. His rule became so unpopular that for many it was a relief when the monarchy was restored after his death, but Cromwell was also a man of vision who brought about significant reforms.

10. Britannia incorporated: 1690–1750. As the new century dawned, relations between Scotland and England had never been worse. Yet half a century later the two countries would be making a future together based on profit and interest. The new Britain was based on money, not God.

11. The wrong empire: 1750–1800. The series is the exhilarating and terrible story of how the British Empire came into being through its early settlements—the Caribbean through the sugar plantations (and helped by slavery), the land that later became the United States and India through the British East India Company – and how it eventually came to dominate the world. A story of exploration and daring, but also one of exploitation, conflict, and loss.

12. Forces of nature: 1780–1832. Britain never had the kind of revolution experienced by France in 1789, but it did come close. In the mid-1770s the country was intoxicated by a great surge of political energy. Re-discovering England’s wildernesses, the intellectuals of the “romantic generation” also discovered the plight of the common man, turning nature into a revolutionary force.

13. Victoria and her sisters: 1830–1910. As the Victorian era began, the massive advance of technology and industrialisation was rapidly reshaping both the landscape and the social structure of the whole country. To a much greater extent than ever before women would take a center-stage role in shaping society.

14. The empire of good intentions: 1830–1925. This episode charts the chequered life of the liberal empire from Ireland to India – the promise of civilisation and material betterment and the delivery of coercion and famine.

15. The two Winstons”: 1910–1965. In the final episode, Schama examines the overwhelming presence of the past in the British twentieth century and the struggle of leaders to find a way to make a different national future. As towering figures of the twentieth century, Churchill and Orwell (through his 1984 character Winston Smith) in their different ways exemplify lives spent brooding and acting on that imperial past, and most movingly for us, writing and shaping its history.

Watch the full documentary now (playlist – 13 hours)
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A History of Scotland

Landmark documentary series presented by Neil Oliver.

The Last of the Free – At the dawn of the first millennia, there was no Scotland or England.

Hammers of the Scots – Oliver charts the 13th century story of the two men who helped transform the Gaelic kingdom of Alba into the Scotland of today.

Bishop makes King – Robert Bruce’s 22-year struggle to secure the Scots’ independence is one of the most important chapters in Scotland’s story.

Language is Power – At one time, Gaelic Scotland – the people and the language – was central to the identity of Scots.

Project Britain – Oliver describes how the ambitions of two of Scotland’s Stuart monarchs were the driving force that united two ancient enemies, and set them on the road to the Great Britain we know today.

God’s Chosen People – Neil Oliver continues his journey through Scotland’s past with the story of the Covenanters, whose profound religious beliefs were declared in the National Covenant of 1638.

Let’s Pretend – Bitterly divided by politics and religion for centuries, this is the infamous story of how Scotland and England came together in 1707 to form Great Britain.

The Price of Progress – Through the winning and losing of an American empire and the impact of the Scottish Enlightenment, Neil Oliver reveals how in the second half of the 18th century Scotland was transformed from a poor northern backwater with a serious image problem into one of the richest nations on Earth.

This Land Is Our Land – At the start of the 19th century, everything familiar was swept away. People fled from the countryside into the industrial towns of Scotland’s central belt.

Project Scotland – As a partner in the British Empire, Scotland began the 20th century with an advanced economy and a world-beating heavy industry.

Despite being hailed by BBC Scotland as “one of its most ambitious projects ever”, the show has not been without controversy. There have been some claims, on the website of the BBC, that the programme made some errors.

Further, the 10-part series has come under fire over claims that it is too “anglocentric”. The failure to front it with a historian (Neil Oliver is an archaeologist) has also been attacked. A couple of Scottish academic advisers also resigned before some programmes were completed.

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Series 1 (playlist – 4 hours)

Series 2 (playlist – 4 hours)

Ancients Behaving Badly

Ancients Behaving Badly is an eight part series for History Television that applies a modern analytical take to some of classical history’s most infamous rulers.

Evidence for the lives of these people comes from very limited and biased sources. Like all histories, they’re written by the victors, whether the dynasty that usurped the line of Nero and Caligula and therefore had a vested interest in making them look bad, or the history of the Mongols, a hagiography to Genghis Khan written by his successors designed to make him look great.

Because of their bias, how much of these stories can we trust? Were these men as depraved or as noble as the stories suggest?

This series will answer these questions. Using physical testing, archaeology and a modern knowledge of the sciences from toxicology to ballistics we will re-appraise their lives to separate fact from fiction.

Historical experts will take us to the sites of some of the most pivotal or infamous events of their lives and we will piece together what really happened. Highly stylized two and a half D graphics will be used to bring the crucial and violent moments of their lives to life.

And psychiatric profiling will help us to piece together what was going on inside their heads and then see how they measure up to other brutal rulers on our unique Ancients Behaving Badly Psycho-graph.

By looking at these tyrants with a modern eye, the series aims to show them as real people, who behaved and thought and acted in ways that we can recognize. We will test the stories told about them in the crucible of the modern world.

Episodes included: Caligula, Attila The Hun, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Nero, Hannibal, Genghis Khan and Cleopatra

Watch the full documentary now (playlist – 5 hours)

Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from

People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web. 



Listen to the his Latest Book (Where good ideas come from) talk.

History of Advertising

9 parts 

The World History of Organized Crime

Watch full documentary: Click here.

Seven Ages of Britain

Seven Ages of Britain is a BBC television documentary series which is written and presented by David Dimbleby.

The series covers the history of Britain’s greatest art and artifacts over the past 2000 years. Each episode covers a different period in British history.

Age of Conquest. The first part of the chronicle begins with the Roman invasion and ends with the Norman Conquest. David travels throughout Britain in search of the greatest works of art from the time: the mosaics of Bignor Roman Villa, the burial treasure of Sutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon poetry and Alfred the Great’s Jewel.

Age of Worship. The story of British art in the Middle Ages, spanning from the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170 to the death of Richard II in 1400. It was an age defined by worship – whether worship of God, the king, or one’s lady love.

Age of Power. This episode looks at the Tudors and spans from Henry VIII’s accession in 1509 to the first performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII exactly 100 years later.

Age of Revolution. In the 17th century, when the people of Britain learned to question everything. The result was the Civil War, in which everyone, including artists, had to take sides. Out of it came a reinvented monarchy, a scientific revolution and, ultimately, the great Cathedral of St Paul’s.

Age of Money. In the 18th century, the triumph of commerce led to the emergence of a new ‘middle’ class, a group of people who craved pleasure and novelty, and developed its own tastes in art. The result was a golden age in painting, with Hogarth, Reynolds and Gainsborough reinventing the British style.

Age of Empire. The story of the British Empire from 1750 to 1900, revealed through its art and treasures. David Dimbleby travels through Britain, America and India, tracing the descent from adventure and inspiration into moral bankruptcy as the Empire became a self-serving bureaucratic machine.

Age of Ambition. In the last episode, David Dimbleby looks at how the 20th century saw ordinary Britons upturning ancient power structures and class hierarchies. The catalyst was the First World War, which embroiled the whole nation and called traditional values into question.

Watch the full documentary now (playlist – 6 hours)

The Jews: A People’s History

This five-part documentary explores 4,000 years of Jewish history, starting with the origins of the Jewish people in the Middle East right through to present day Judaism.

The series researches the roots of the Jewish people, seeking clues about Judaism at the archaeological excavation sites, the centers of culture and in the written evidence of the Jewish Diaspora.

The purpose of the documentary is to give the public deeper insight, beyond the Holocaust and Israeli politics, into the Jewish people, Nina Koshofer, director of the documentary, said. We wanted to enlighten people on the historical development of Jews and their faith. We chose people with whom the public could identify.

Koshofer has focused most of her attention on known personalities. We also want to show the diversity of the Jewish people the rich and the poor, the famous and unknowns… We also wanted to try and answer the question that perhaps never really can be answered who is Jewish and what is Jewish… Koshofer added.

Koshofer is aiming to show that the answers to many questions are as varied as the number of Jews who live in the world today. One cannot portray Jews as one idea or ideal. Episodes included: Exodus, Diaspora, Stigma, The Star of David, Zion.

Watch the full documentary now (playlist – 4 hours)

Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex

At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

Richard Dawkins Speaking at Duke University, Oct 3, 2010

Denis Dutton: A Darwinian theory of beauty

TED collaborates with animator Andrew Park to illustrate Denis Dutton's provocative theory on beauty -- that art, music and other beautiful things, far from being simply "in the eye of the beholder," are a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins.

Marijuana A Chronic History

The fight against drug use in America has been going on since the turn of the last century but the term War on Drugs only became part of our national dialog in 1970 when it was first used by President Richard Nixon.

The President later formed the DEA and started a push to outlaw drugs of all kinds. Among the most discussed drugs in this war is Marijuana.

This special will look at the storied and strange history of Marijuana in America. Probably one of the better documentaries, mostly seems pro-cannabis and by far the most pro-cannabis documentary thus far released by the History Channel.

The documentary attempts to educate everyone who still has a Reefer Madness mindset, who still thinks cannabis prohibition is reasonable, and who have no idea that widespread cannabis use is relatively harmless compared to alcohol, tobacco, and especially pharmaceutical and other drugs.

Byzantium: The Lost Empire

For more than 1,000 years, the Byzantine Empire was the eye of the entire world – the origin of great literature, fine art and modern government. Heir to Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire was also the first Christian empire.

After a year of filming on three continents, TLC unlocks this ancient civilization, spanning 11 centuries and three continents. Pass through the gates of Constantinople, explore the magnificent mosque of Hagia Sophia and see the looted treasures of the empire now located in St. Marks, Venice.

Byzantium, brings to life an empire that, while seemingly distant, is very closely linked to the evolution of Western Civilization. Traces the growth of the first Christian empire, one that lasted for over a thousand years and the maturity and decline of Byzantium through its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

John Romer, the author and on-screen guide for the series, breathes life into the city and the powerful ideas that made the Byzantium a thriving cultural and commercial center while western Europe was slogging through the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages.

At its height, Byzantium housed the most precious Christian relics, including a piece of Christ’s cross. Located on the border of Europe and Asia, it ruled an empire that extended across Asia Minor and the Balkans. Then, after the rise of Islam, the empire shrank until little was left outside the city walls.

Byzantium turned to Europe for help in fighting the infidels, only to have its own city sacked by the Crusaders whose help it sought. Venice, its erstwhile trading partner, carried off many of its artistic masterpieces. The Hagia Sophia, originally built as a Christian church, became Istanbul’s most famous mosque.

And the scholars who had kept alive the study of Greek for more than a millennium fled to Europe where they helped lay the groundwork for the Renaissance. Byzantium, the video, takes us on a visually sumptuous journey to key locations throughout the empire, while putting a human face on the key actors in the history of this unique and vital empire. I never suspected I would find this story as compelling as it turned out to be.

Art of War: Sun Tzu

Although accounts differ over the Sun Tzu’s origins, according to a biography written by a 2nd century BC historian he was a general who lived in the state of Wu in 6th century BC.

Sun Tzu is most famous for the Art of War, praised as the definitive work on military strategy and tactics prior to the collapse of imperial China. Consisting of 13 chapters, the Art of War is one of the most famous studies on strategies for military success.

The most fundamental of Sun Tzu’s principles is that “warfare is based on deception”, and he believed that “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”. One of his stratagems emphasizes the importance of knowing your enemy, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat”. Today his work has found new applications in areas totally unrelated to its original military purpose and used as a guide in business, sport, diplomacy, and even in dating!

The story of India

For over two millennia, India has been at the centre of world history. But how did India come to be? What is India? These are the big questions behind this intrepid journey around the contemporary subcontinent. In this landmark series, historian and acclaimed writer Michael Wood embarks on a dazzling and exciting expedition through today's India, looking to the present for clues to her past, and to the past for clues to her future. The journey takes the viewer through majestic landscapes and reveals some of the greatest monuments and artistic treasures on Earth. From Buddhism to Bollywood, from mathematics to outsourcing, Michael Wood discovers India's impact on history - and on us.
















This episode examines the British Raj and India’s struggle for freedom. Wood reveals how in South India a global corporation came to control much of the subcontinent, and explores the magical culture of Lucknow, discovering the enigmatic Briton who helped found the freedom movement. He traces the Amritsar massacre, the rise of Gandhi and Nehru, and the events that led to the Partition of India in 1947.