Cuban Missile Crisis

From the Academy Award winning documentrary "Fog of War": Below is a PBS documentary that focuses on Soviet submarines.

Korea in the Cold War

This "newsreel" style clip is clearly a product of its time. Pay close attention to how Communism and its adherents are characterized. The UN and the Korean War are the focus. The noted "Fire and Ice" documentary:

Origins of the Cold War

Make sure to view this well done documentary with your "Cold War" study terms at hand.

World War II Documentaries

Below are four short clips of documentaries relating to: The Third Riech's invasion of Poland 1939. The siege of Stalingrad. The battle for Leningrad. View these clips with your study terms handy.





On the other side of the conflict--the noted "Fog of War" documentary looks at the firebombing of Tokyo in March of 1945. A film from the War Department entitled "The Last Bomb".

Italian Fascism

This series of Discovery Channel documentary clips provides an interesting perspective on the power Benito Mussolini grabbed in 1922 and '23.

Brief Documentary Clips on WWI

These "WatchMojo" brief clips give an overview of the major events the war.

Great War Images and Legacies

Because no significant part of the German nation was lost (or indeed even invaded) and no shot was fired in anger on German soil, many Germans felt that there was still a great deal of "fight" left in the German military and German people. Many (Adolf Hitler included) felt like the military had been "stabbed in the back" by a civilian government (the Weimar Republic that replaced the imperial regime of Kaiser Wilhelm II) that was secretly controlled by a Jewish cabal of profiteers.




Because of the remarkable levels of destruction--and the senselessness, the uselessness of that destruction, that loss--many lost faith in progress, democracy, and traditional sources of authority.


Because such large numbers of men went off to serve in the period's "Citizen" armies, there was a huge demand for new sources of labor as the industrial West geared up for "total war." One such source was middle-class women, many of whom were married. The photograph above is from France, but women flocked to factories in all the industrialized countries, including the Untied States.



Because of the advances of the Industrial Age, World War I was the first widespread governmental use of "scientific" (and racialized) propaganda.


The Treaty of Versailles, much of which was based on the ideas of retribution and revenge, provided a focal point around which Germans of all political stripes could unite. Wilson is the central figure below. The other two are Georges Clemenceau of France and David Lloyd George of Great Britain.




>As we will see in the next section, the Russian Revolution(s) of 1917 were one of the most important and long lasting of the legacies of the First World War.

America's Entry in the War

After maintaining two and a half years of neutrality, events forced the leadership in the US to enter the war on the side of the allies. With large Irish- and German-American communities in the voting population, it made sense for Woodrow Wilson and others to steer the course of neutrality. But events made this difficult. The sinking of the RMS Lusitania in May of 1915 was one such event. Of the 1195 lives lost, 128 were Americans.
Later, so-called "unrestricted" submarine warfare would cost lives and millions of dollars worth of cargo as it made its way to Britain. Even though he had been elected on the slogan "he kept us out of war," Wilson would go to Congress on 2 April, 1917 and ask for a declaration of war against the Empire of Germany.
The two graphs indicate that the economy of the United States made the nation that much more formidable an enemy. Although the Iron and Steel graph predates the years of the war, it indicates that the US was on a path to industrial dominance.

World War I and Alliances

In the one hundred years since the Congress of Vienna, there had been no Europe-wide conflict among the industrialized neations of the continent. Indeed, a complex system of defensive alliances (see map) created two opposing camps--the Central powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire; and the Allied powers of Britain, France, and Russia.

There were plenty of opportunities for competition and tension, however. The "Scramble for Africa," expanding industiral competition, and the emergence of an expansionistic and militaristic Germany under the leadership of the bellicose Wilhelm II (pictured), all led to the creation of a tinerbox that needed only the spark of assassination to detonate a World War.


Part of the problem in 1914 was the development of complex and intricate war/mobilization plans that called for high levels of speed and planning. Germany's famous "Schlieffen Plan" was one such mobilization scheme. Because of the realities of geography (see map), Germany would be forced to fight a two-front war: Russia on one side and Britian and France on the other.


The Shlieffen Plan assumed a slow and disorganized Russian mobilization and focused Imperial Germany's resources on France and Britain with a lightning drive through Belgium (see map).


After securing victory there, Germany would then shift its resources to the Russians in the east. But when Russia mobilized following the crisis of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Germany was boxed (as they saw it) to an even greater comitment to the speed and mobilzation of the Shlieffen Plan. Below is a link to a BBC documentary on the Battle of the Somme.

"Dutch Learning" and the Meiji Restoration

A fairly objective documentary featuring the important period at the end of the Shogunate and what would lead eventually to the Meiji "Restoration."


A bit longer series of clips with fairly high production values (though unfortunately the audio is out of synch):

Imperialism and Rebellion in China

A fairly basic but informative lecture (with images) by a high school history instructor: Clips from a (cheesey?) Hollywood film titled "55 Days in Peking." It is set in the events of the Boxer Rebellion and features an always masculine Charleton Heston.

Colonialism in Congo

A "history project" work, but pretty informative: Another work focusing on the efforts to end the Belgian outrage:

Sepoy Rebellion

An interesting blend of graphics and "commercial" film footage that a History Instructor has put together for his class. Click on the YouTube link.

Spanish-American War

Below is a History Channel documentary that focuses on the fate of the USS Maine and its legacy. Below is perhaps a broader documentary entitled "the Crucible of Empire".

Marxism and Socialism

A visually cheesey video (but surprisingly informative) of the businessman turned Socialist Rober Owen. (Fans of the "Hof" be forewarned!)


A history-project documentary on Marx (updated with a funky-rocky soundtrack), with some salient quotations.


The unofficial "anthem" of international Socialism--The Internationale.

This is the a clip I often show in lecture. Gotta love the late, great Marc Bolan . . . .

The Industrial Revolution

The ideas of Karl Marx and his co-author, co-respondent, and friend Friedrich Engels were some of the most influential of the 20th Century, though their roots were firmly established in the turmoil of the 19th. Click this link for a synopsis of the Manifesto that was published in 1848. Manifesto
Then click on "Analysis" in the upper right for a fuller explication.

View this clip and pay particular attention to the social effects of mechanization:


View this clip with the question of why the Industrial Revolution began where and when it did.








Yankee inventor (and history teacher!) Eli Whitney made a few small technological innovations in his "Gin" (short for engine) with very large social, cultural, and political ramifications.




James Watt's developments of the earlier bulky and inefficient steam engine brought English factories down out of the hills (where water power was preeminent) and into the modern industrial city.





Before the rise of the Spinning Jenny and the Water Frame, the production of textiles took place in homes, cabins, and farms. But with the rise of Richard Arkwright's complex, large, expensive, and water-driven Water Frame, industry needed its own space, the "factory."

The clip below examines the roleof water power in the development of industry.





The "Jenny" (an adaptation of the word "Engine") played a significant role in the early years of the Industrial Revolution. A few things to keep in mind: it was manpowered--or more accurately "woman-powered"--and was still small enough to fit in the homes or cabins of "spinners." Click below for a demonastration from the Smithsonian Institution on the operation of the cotton gin

The Enclosure Movement

Click on the tab below for a lecture overview of the transition from Medieval formations to the modern.

Water and the Industrial Revolution

Derwent Valley Mills is a World Heritage Site along the River Derwent in Derbyshire, England, designated in December 2001. It is administered by the Derwent Valley Mills Partnership. The modern factory, or 'mill', system was born here in the 18th century to accommodate the new technology for spinning cotton developed by Richard Arkwright. With advancements in technology, it became possible to produce cotton continuously. The system was adopted throughout the valley, and later spread so that by 1788 there were over 200 Arkwright-type mills in Britain. Arkwright's inventions and system of organising labour was exported to Europe and the United States.

Water-power was first introduced to England by John Lombe at his silk mill in Derby in 1719, but it was Richard Arkwright who applied water-power to the process of producing cotton in the 1770s. His patent of a water frame allowed cotton to be spun continuously and meant it could be produced by unskilled workers. Cromford Mill and Cromford was the site of Arkwright's first mill, and his system of production and worker's housing was copied throughout the valley. To ensure the presence of a labour force, it was necessary to construct housing for the mill workers. Thus, new settlements were established by mill owners around the mills -- sometimes developing a pre-existing community -- with their own amenities such as schools, chapels, and markets. Most of the housing still exists and is still in use. Along with the transport infrastructure form part of the site. A transport infrastructure was built to open new markets for the mills' produce.

Mills and worker's settlements were established at Belper, Darley Abbey, and Milford by Arkwright's competitors. Arkwright-type mills were so successful that sometimes they were copied without paying royalties to Richard Arkwright. The cotton industry in the Derwent Valley went into decline in the first quarter of the 19th century as the market shifted towards Lancashire which was better position in relation to markets and raw materials. The mills and their associated buildings are well preserved and have been reused since the cotton industry declined. Many of the buildings within the World Heritage Site are also listed buildings and Scheduled Monuments. Some of the mills now contain museums and are open to the public.

The French Revolution

Louis and Marie Antoinette at Tuileries Palace

David's "Tennis Court Oath"

The Bastille

The March ofthe Fishwives

A Revolutionary "Sans-Culotte"

David's "Death of Marat"

A Detail Reveals the Name of Marat's Murderer

Georges Danton

Maximilien Robespierre

The Execution of Robespierre
We will discuss the French Revolution in more detail in lecture. A documentary with very high production vlues on the Revolution.

The Suffering Genius of Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton--the formulator of the great Universal Theory of Gravitation--became in the next century a hero of the Enlightenment...a paragon of reason and rationalism. These brief video clips discuss instead that Newton's infatuation with alchemy and heretical sects make him a much more complex (and human) person.