The World at War
World War II profoundly shaped the course of the 20th century, and unfortunately, its horrors, including ethnic cleansing, terrorism, tyranny, invasions, restrictions on civil liberties, and rampant nationalism, remain a problem today. The documentary series World at War excels at revealing the complex issues of World War II in a clear, objective and compelling way.
Narrated by Laurence Olivier, each of the 26 episodes in this set of five DVDs focuses on a particular aspect of the war, from Hitler’s rise to power in Germany to its end. Because of this focus, each episode explores its subject in detail, going beyond the name and date story style I remember being exposed to in high school to tackle more interesting and important issues… how and why trades.
I’ve learned something new in every episode since the first episode. The entire episode follows a set timeline from the beginning to the end of the war, but since a lot of things tend to happen in a short amount of time, the episode goes back in several places to complement what happened in different places. For example, after we reviewed events from Hitler’s rise to power in Germany in the late 1930s to the Battle of Britain and Hitler’s attack on Russia.
