Andrew Marr's History of the World [DVD]

I heard enthusiastic responses to the televised series. As I enjoy history and like to get the broad view first before exploring specific eras, I viewed it on DVD. The visual treats and extraordinary people, places and tales from the past are presented in a convincing and dramatic way. It makes you marvel at human beings, their heroic struggles to survive and their villainous ways, too. Like most short histories of the world one has to accept the limitations of this format.Several parts of this work suffer from the selection process and the perceptions of those who worked on it. For me a significant issue was the way Christianity was presented: it was presented as the result of the incredibly missionary efforts of St Paul. And, indeed, I would not argue with the evidence of the powerful and effective work Paul did in bringing Christianity to the Gentile world. Why, I wonder, was the person of Jesus of Nazareth ignored. I suspect that this omission is in part due to confusions in the minds of many about the difference between the experience of the the Christian faith and belonging to a holy "club". This omission was made more noticeable by the fuller coverage given to Confucius, the Buddha and Muhammad. All the more astonishing as the commentary mentioned that there are over two billion Christians in the world.Nevertheless, high marks to Andrew Marr for a work of great breath, intelligence, and commentary delivered at a reasonable pace. High marks, too, to all involved in the technical and digital business of filming and editing.Rosalie P Fanning

Andrew Marr has crafted a gem. Perhaps not the most photogenic presenter around, nevertheless he excels at his new craft; his previous being that of a journalist. His inflexion, intonation & studied pauses add to the story.Comprising 8 episodes, this series covers man's history over the past 70,000 years.1. Survival: How the earliest humans spread around the world, adapting and surviving against the odds.2. Age of Empire: The story of the first empires which laid the foundations for the modern world.3. The Word and the Sword: Charting the spiritual revolutions that shook the world between 300 BC and 700 AD.Episodes.4. Into the Light: This episode covers the Middle Ages, when Vikings explored and pillaged5. Age of Plunder: Illustrating Europe's rise from piracy to private enterprise6. Revolution: Exploration of a time when people worldwide rose up in the name of freedom and equality.7. Age of Industry. Andrew Marr tells how Britain's Industrial Revolution created the modern world.8. Age of Extremes: Bringing the story right up to date with the twentieth century.Comprising up to 10 stories per episode from around the world, Andrew weaves & builds the central thesis of each episode. The rich, lush & realistic re-enactments immerse one in the action. Central to the presentation is Marr's narration occurring at the location of the related action being discussed. For instance the story of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima highlights this with Andrew wandering around modern day Hiroshima. All of this attention to detail & realism is what makes this presentation stand head & shoulders above the dross so often seen with their poor presentations & skimpy re-enactments that remain implausible for the Viewer.Each Episode provides an eclectic mix of case studies which provide much food for thought about the human condition. Marr's concise, lucid & engaging analysis rounds off the presentation.All history lovers will be enthralled as I was by this production. Undoubted an opus magnis on this topic, it will be at least a decade before anything close to & on this scale will be produced again.Hats off to the BBC History Department!

First, to deal with the other reviews.The chap who gave it 1 star knows so much about Eratosthenes, Da Vinci and the pilgrimage of 1324 that I wonder if he was actually there for all of these events (although if he's a personal mate of Eratosthenes, the old Greek might be annoyed that he's forgotten how to spell his name). Anyway, Mr 1-star certainly knows more about all of this than Andrew Marr. How wonderful to be so well informed - one wonders if the point of his review was to tell us how much he knows.The review with 2 stars notes that Mr Marr misses out a few bits and that the series is of no assistance to teaching history unless you already are very Knowlegible (sic) in the subject matter. I suppose to include all of world history would take a few more DVDs and the box set would be too big to go under the Christmas tree. When he says "I am speaking ass a person who likes history", is it just me or does anybody else think there's a word or two missing in there?The truth is this: this series is the opinion of one man (and his researchers); it's informative entertainment, not a history lesson; and yes, it misses out a few bits of the last few millennia. If you can forgive all this, it's fantastic. 5 stars.

The only reason I did not rate it with five stars is that is so much better. But this was expected. After all, there would be some serious time limitations to put it all on video. I recommend it to all of you who are interested in having a big picture or general view of the history of the human race on this earth. In other words it is a very good first step to start finding who we are historically. Another interesting point about it is that Andrew Marr really attempts (and succeeds) in delivering us true history of the world and not some history of the western civilization disguised as history of the world. It is really worth watching it! But beware, you will probably become addict and start wanting some more about our history on this planet!