Buy New

$47.99

| Fast, FREE Shipping with Amazon Prime

Usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Trade in your item
Get up to a $30.29
Gift Card.

Trade in
Learn More

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available
To view this video download Flash Player

Civilisation: The Complete Series

DVD | Box Set

Sir Kenneth Clark (Actor) Rated:

149 customer reviews

Additional DVD options

Edition

Discs

Price

New from

Used from

DVD
(Mar 09, 2010)

"Please retry"

—

$47.99

—

DVD

"Please retry"

—

$16.77

$21.20

DVD
(Jun 27, 2006)

"Please retry"

—

$109.98

$101.99

DVD

"Please retry"

—

$284.95

—

Civilisation: The Complete Series

$47.99 | Fast, FREE Shipping with Amazon Prime Usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

Total price: $219.68

One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details

Buy the selected items together

This item:Civilisation: The Complete Series by Sir Kenneth Clark DVD $47.99
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $49. Details
The Ascent of Man Dvd Set by Dr. Jacob Bronowski DVD $99.99
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping. Details
Connections 1 [5- Disc Set] by James Burke DVD $71.70
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Dr. Jacob Bronowski

114

DVD
$99.99
71

DVD
$21.89
James Burke

176

DVD
$71.70
Kenneth Clark

48

Hardcover
Various

113

DVD
$39.39
James Stourton

8

Hardcover
$26.77

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Editorial Reviews

Civilisation: The Complete Series (Repackaged/DVD)

The eminent art historian Sir Kenneth Clark was commissioned to write and present an epic examination of Western European culture, defining what he considered to be the crucial phases of its development. Civilisation: A Personal View by Lord Clark would be more than two years in the making, with filming in over 100 locations across 13 countries. The lavish series was hailed as a masterpiece when it was first transmitted in 1969.

]]>

Special Features

None.

Product Details

Actors: Sir Kenneth Clark
Format: Multiple Formats, Box set, Color, NTSC
Language: English (Stereo)
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Number of discs: 4
Rated:
NR
Not Rated
Studio: BBC Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: March 9, 2010
Run Time: 670 minutes
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (149 customer reviews)
ASIN: B0035L1PDC
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,776 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #175 in Movies & TV > DVD > Documentary

Customer Reviews

149

4.1 out of 5 stars

5 star		71%
4 star		10%
3 star		3%
2 star		2%
1 star		14%

Write a customer review

See all verified purchase reviews

Top Customer Reviews

One of the greatest documentaries ever made

ByCharlton Griffinon July 26, 2006

Format: DVD

If you have never seen this series before and are interested in art history, you just landed in a honey jar. Clark takes us on a 1,500 year journey through Western Civilization starting roughly at the end of the Roman Empire and ending in mid 20th century. He tells us straight out that his aim was to follow the history of Western European civilization as seen through the eyes of its artists. Why the limitation to only Western European civilization? Apparently, Lord Clark wanted to keep the series to a manageable length. The series is over 13 hours long as it is, and one can only wonder what it would have gone on to become had he included the Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Asian, African and Pre-Columbian cultures. The mind boggles. With Civilisation, Clark has done an incredible job of showing us the amazing cultural legacy left by our European forebears. And at the end he reminds us that this is only a fraction of what was actually achieved. You will recognize many of these works. Others will not be so familiar. But they carry the weight of historical significance, and everyone with at least a four year college education should be aware of the general drift of Clark's presentation. He finished this program for the BBC in 1969. It was an immediate success and you can also find the book of the same name which was a popular spinoff of the series. I recommend it also. The series came along in the midst of some of the most tumultuous scenes of civic strife of the last 50 years. Against this background, Clark laid out his thesis that Western civilization has consisted of a series of catastrophes and rebirths. He indicates that our depression over the events of the twentieth century should not lead us into abandoning the cultural legacy which has been bequeathed to us. For example, if the Black Plague of the 14th century were to strike us with the same force it did before, over a hundred million Americans would die. The Thirty Years war devastated parts of Europe even worse than World War 2. And yet, the will to survive and rebuild society was always there. It is a prescient reminder for the current generation of thoughtful people.

1515 comments 184 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

If you buy only one DVD documentary this year, make it this....

ByKenneth M. Pizzion June 29, 2006

Format: DVDVerified Purchase

Lucid, engaging, and comprehensive does not adequately describe Sir Kenneth Clark's magnificent survey into Western Civilization. For a series over 40 years old, the audio is remastered, the transfers are remarkably clean, and the content and opinions of the host hardly seem dated. Clark effectively interweaves music, art, science and architecture into a broad sweeping portrait that defines Western thought. For those critics who find Clark's praise for Western art either superficial or superfluous have probably been watching and listening to the typical PBS tripe directed to an audience with a junior high vocabulary with an attention span to match.

Clark is a splendid presenter and teacher whose enthusiasm for his work clearly shows. It's all here, from the ancient Greeks to the modern age (well actually, circa 1969 when the series was made), while "Civilization" is a wonderful introduction to the "humanities"--something that they used to teach in college, but now supplanted by courses and programs of dubious relevance and replete with politically correct content.

If you snoozed during your mandatory art or humanities courses in college or just found them as an opportunity to catch up on some other homework during lecture, let Sir Kenneth Clark explain to you why these things still matter today and help to define our culture and our lives. For slightly more than what you would pay for one class at a local community college, you can enjoy a most superlative achievement in truly "higher education."

Unlike the virtually unletterd commentators and hosts on the "History Channel" who apparently utter a profound "Wow, cool!" every time they are confronted with some architectual wonder or historical artifact, Clark's presentation, scholarly but never "stuffy," is a refreshing and welcome antidote.

Clark's remarks and insight are as on target as they are illuminating--see the installment featuring Michaelangelo and the Renaissance and you will understand why. Now, if only the BBC would release Alistair Cooke's "America" with Region 1 encoding for all of us to enjoy on this side of the pond...