Customer Reviews

Legacy: The Origins of Civilization

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is a great documentary from charismatic historian Michael Wood. Watched and recorded this series on VHS when it was first broadcasted on PBS in 1991. Borrowed from a local library and watched it again when it was on DVD by Ambrose in 2002, and again on DVD by Athena in 2010. Michael Wood gave an excellent historical perspective of the legacy left by six ancient great civilizations for modern nations as they enter the 21st century, so as to avoid the pitfall that led to the demise of these ancient societies. Those who don't learn from lessons of history are bound to repeat it.

This video was a real disappointment. I was looking forward to a definition of what civilization is, when it started, and why. That is not what you get here. Michael Wood makes only 2 salient points that I remember: the advent of the written word, and the period of around 500 BC when there were many great thinkers in diverse places around the world. Which leads the viewer to ask: What defines civilization? When did it start? What caused it to start? etc, etc,etc. What are the origins of civilization???

Instead Mr Wood mixes his vignettes with contemporary imagery and commentary. In fact, he appears to be a victim of contemporary revisionist history. We get to hear the typical drivel about how the colonial powers ruined the peaceful indigenous populations around the world, and how evil the Christians have been throughout history; blah, blah, blah. I guess we are supposed to ignore the fact that the Renaissance occurred in Christian Europe. He mentions the interaction of religion with various civilizations, but, curiously never mentions America, which had as one of its fundamental founding principles the concept that a free and prosperous state must allow the practice of free political speech and unhindered religion. An interesting subtlety is his imagery of communism. Without overtly advocating it, there is this undertone that he thinks communism will be the next level that civilization will develop to. I guess he missed the 20th Century where socialism and communism were responsible for the genocide of as many as 200 million people.

So what are the "Origins of Civilization"? You won't get the answer with this video. You will get good scholarship from John Romer's "Testament" and Joseph Campbell's "Mythos".

I have watched all 5 of Michael Wood's Legacy Series and find them to be politically biased. Michael Wood distorts /skews our understanding of ancient civilizations by completely ignoring and omitting Iran and its legacies in the histories of these regions/countries. As such I believe he does a disservice to humanity with this "revisionist" account where he erases Iran's contributions in each of the regions he covers. He is quick to mention Alexander, the Greek, but not Cyrus, the Persian.

For example, in his section on Iraq, he completely omits a beautiful and rich Zoroasterian Persian/Iranian legacy which spanned 600 years. Ctesiphon, the Capital of Parthians and Sassanians for 600 years is 40 miles south of Bagdad, which by the way is a persian word meaning Gift of God. He stands on Sassassian mound and picks up a blue ceramic and asks about the Romans instead of the Persians who ruled from Ctesiphon. He doesn't even show us the great arch of Ctesiphon. This is truly abominable. This Persian/Iranian legacy is something of which People of Iraq can be proud. More recently, he omits the positive legacy of Pahlavi's in the region as well and fails to discuss the negative legacy of British Colonialism and its destructive effects in Iraq. So, why are Iraqi so impoverished and backwards? It is as a result of British Imperial policies in the region in 1900s. He fails to say that Iraq was a part of Iran until 1919 when it was artificially divided and he fails to mention that the majority of Iraqi's are Iranian and speak Persian. Michael Wood presents a fabricated history of Iraq.

In India, he fails to mention that Ashok, the Great who brought in religious tolerance, was inspired by Cyrus the Great, who established the first secular empire in the region. In fact, Ashok was so inspired by Cyrus that he built capitals with lions on top of it and placed them all over his empire. These were also icons of Achemeni Empire. Instead, he mentions Alexander, who had little to no impact on India. He also fails to state that for 5 centuries (500 years) the official language of India was Persian. Moreover, he fails to state that the Mughal Empire was established in India by Iranian-Mongols who brought Persian language, Persian customs, Persian art, Persian literature, and Persian architecture, to India. Why? Is it out of ignorance? Another important legacy of Iran in India is its Zoroasterian heritage and its influence in India and indian religions and art. Why does he minimize or omit the beautiful and strong Persian/Iranian legacy in India? The Indians are proud of their Iranian legacy. While he is at it, he could also state that the Shah Abbas, the Iranian/Persian King stole the Peacock Throne from India but then the British Stole the Peacock throne during Victorian era from Iran and supposedly it was lost at sea but the Jewels are probably in England. Lets be truthful about history, instead of lying about it through omissions.

In his Barbarians of the West, he seems to suggest the concepts of individualism, secularism, and property are purely western ideas. This is false. He fails to mention that up until the 18th century, all educated western politicians and political scientists had to read Xenophon's Cyrus and so they came into contact with Zoroasterian values, ideas as well as Persian/Iranian methods of government. This ancient practice of religious tolerance was initiated by Cyrus the Great and continued by his successors and inspired Westerners as well. Zoroasterian notions of the individual were highlighted by Fredrick Nietzche. These concepts were not uniquely Western. The concept of equality between sexes and small families and property rights existed in Iran, in Egypt, and many other nations prior to incursion of Islam and Colonialism.

I was appalled and shocked at the lack of scholarship in this series. If he is truly an educator, he would want to educate the world about the glorious legacy of Zoroasterian Kings in Iraq, India, etc. and he would educate the world about the destructive effects of colonialism which in part accounts for the backwardness of these countries today.

Michael Wood lies to us through major omissions. If it happened once, I would let it go, but I find it an insulting pattern where he completely minimized and erases Iran from ancient history. He lacks scholarly integrity.

I notice that in all of these Indo-Eurpoean biased documentaries they will rarely speak of the great civilizations of Africa. They throw Egypt in after the actual original inhabitants (blacks)were "wiped out" by invaders and the culture ruled by Indo-European ideas of patriarchy, racism and brutality. The cities of early civilizations didn't even have walls because there was no fear of attack. They were dependent on each other and everyone had a duty to contribute to the society as a whole. The "true barbarians" who lived "hand to mouth" in the deserts have written history in their favor, yet they cannot prove anything they acomplished (other than slavery, killing and bloodshed) with the today's actual archelogical truth about their origins. Africa's great civilizations predate any of the Islamic or Indo-European so called civilizations where people of color and women served as chattel under their oppressive regimes. The "Middle Eastern" beginnings of man and civilization has already been proved a lie and implausible. As usual,follow the DNA and people migrations you will find the truth! So called documentaries like this one and others like it should be labeled what the are, racist propaganda!