Product Details

• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Athena
• DVD Release Date: March 30, 2010
• Run Time: 304 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00335EQ1I
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,662 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Exploring the foundations of the modern world

WHAT CAN THE PAST TEACH US ABOUT THE PRESENT? In this profound and provocative documentary, historian Michael Wood travels the globe to trace the origins of six great civilizations. These ancient cultures offer surprising perspectives on today’s most urgent questions: What purpose does society serve? How can it survive--and thrive--within the limits of nature?

Journey to Iraq, where humans built the first cities and faced the first environmental crisis; to India, where a culture of spirituality flourished; to China, where ritual and respect for ancestors reflected ideas of cosmic harmony; to Egypt, where monuments to the dead promised stability and eternal life; to Central America, where the Aztecs and Maya carved out bloody empires; and to Western Europe, where the individual became the center of society. In every locale, Legacy takes a fresh, strikingly relevant look at the roots of civilization.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EDUCATIONAL--INSIGHTFUL--INTELLECTUAL--MEDITATIVE, February 7, 2010

By 

Harold Wolf "Doc" (Wells, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Legacy: The Origins of Civilization (DVD)

Historian Michael Wood leads viewers on a dramatically filmed excursion through different civilizations. Live footage of locations and peoples enlighten the beginnings of 6 civilizations (by the narrator's definition "life in cities"). The writer pushes a main theme of tolerance, a need for the worlds cultures to coexist, and suggests through the study of past civilizations, perhaps peaceful existence can happen. Not a lecture format, but engaging at a university level.

A dynamic depiction, based on a well documented presentation, at a level not for children but the intellectual. Woods uses a well educated vocabulary to explain the earliest 6 civilizations of the world, and how they continue to play a vital role in the people, politics, society, economy, and religions of every continent. "LEGACY" offers an intellectual approach to understanding diverse groups of peoples through an in-depth look at historical facts. Educational rather than entertaining. Scholarly, not documentary. yet the film footage is as delightful as a travelogue. It points to civilizations with similar developments though independently achieved.

DETAILS:
1 IRAQ
Bible verse suggests it the cradle of the human race with accounts of Nineveh, Babylon & perhaps even Edin or the Garden of Eden. Home of Abraham, father of 3 religions. Uruk: 1st city began as a religious center. This civilization first invented the school, world map, astronomy, wheel, literature (ark story), writing, plow, and time set in divisions of 60.
2 INDIA
Sanskrit: oldest living language is from here, with it's now 850 million population amid a caste system and a violent heritage. A civilization with a tradition of rejecting materialism, often invaded, and the episode finishes with the British colonial plundering of this civilization.
3 CHINA
The last of great civilizations to develop, 1000 years after IRAQ, was "sustained by virtue, ritual, & reverence for ancestors." A sign called "wen" (writing) on 'dragon bones' was the beginning of that word. Confucius & traditions surrounding him return today, lie TAo (path) & India's Buddha. China crated the 1st great cuisine, plus inventing gunpowder, stern rudders, magnetic compass, paper maps, and printing.
4 EGYPT
A civilization that drew its existence from the greatest river (Nile) of the world (600 mile x 6 mile wide). An optimistic group crating the world's first state. Funeral monuments: Pyramids-a Greek given name, rulers elevated to God-like status, a practice yet seen all over the earth. Ideas of eternal life and resurrection began here but without damnation. Egypt gave us paper (papyrus), sailboats, and irrigation.
5 CENTRAL AMERICA
Maya & Aztec peoples invented writing independently. Pyramids were built which rival Egypt. A civilization based on time & nature being sovereign even to bloody sacrificial human death. Zero "0" was conceptualized here.
6 EUROPE-WEST
The 1st peoples to spread their civilization across the whole planet. Although great value came from their civilization it also was at great violent costs. Greeks drew from other civilizations and created democracy-put politics into the hands of citizens--"politismo" or civilization as they saw it. Eventually a possessive, property-based individualism, late marriage, small family, and free-market culture dominated, yet today.

DVD set includes subtitles, very helpful not only for the hearing impaired but for the names and many words spoken. Also, a bonus of "When Giants Walked the Earth" gives profiles of Axial Age thinkers (Zoroaster, Isaiah, Buddha, Mahavira, Confucius, Laozi, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Homer, & Thucydides). An included booklet is helpful with a synopsis of each episode, maps, questions to ponder, and other informational bits.

Along these same educational lines, if you like "Legacy", you will probably enjoy seeing "Edge of Existence" and "The Shape of the World", both sets put out by the same Athena DVD supplier.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ideology and theology and history, June 3, 2010

By 

I Teach Typing (Stanford, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legacy: The Origins of Civilization (DVD)

This is one of the best historical documentaries I have seen. It ties together historical facts with religious and social myths from 6 cultures and links them all together with modern trends. The unique characteristics of each civilization are explored and then that information is expanded as the civilizations look outward and tried to integrate with others. The parallels between the rise and fall of the ancient cultures are very nicely laid out and integrated with modern worries (over-consumption and war) without being overly idealistic or seeming to preach.

The vocabulary, tone and presentation are basically like a great university level lecture. If you have seen other disks by Wood this one is more like In Search of the Trojan War and less like some of his travelogue work. Overall, this disk reminds me a lot of Bettany Hughes when she is at her best or the historical work of Susan Wise Bauer The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. Like both of those authors, this set of disks tells interesting stories as well as reporting the historical record.

Another important point is that technically these disks are absolutely excellent. The landscape cinematography and footage of current festivals are consistently great. The sound-track and music are perfectly mastered and blend seamlessly into the narration. The recording of the narrator is nearly flawless (the sound quality in a couple spots in Egypt is not good).

In summary, this is a great engaging mixture of history and storytelling which sounds good and looks fantastic.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cluttered and light, January 18, 2011

By 

MrWolfe "oldwolf01" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legacy: The Origins of Civilization (DVD)

Overall I liked the series however, that said:
Each "culture' he visits he spends way, way to much time on current or historically recent events along with an often pretentious monolog.
Why would one ever discuss, or arrive at the British Invasion of India, or Desert Storm in Iraq, in a series subtitled 'The Origins of Civilization'?
So I would call this more of a travelogue than a history program. It's not horrible but it is exceptionally lightweight.