ENGINEERING AN EMPIRE
A & E Home Video
Engineering An Empire has been out awhile but there was no way I'd let it go by without a review. My wife and I have said repeatedly that if we had cable this kind of thing would be about all we'd watch. The History channel has done an amazing job of not only making a number of arcane subjects accessible but actually packing their programming with real information in a way that educates and promotes intellectual curiosity. Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be made is that us vidiots will actually feel compelled to open a book or two. The twelve episodes you get here on four discs cover Greece: Age of Alexander, The Aztecs, Carthage, China, Russia, Britain: Blood and Steel, The Persians, The Maya: Death Empire, Napoleon: Steel Monster, The Byzantines, and Da Vinci's World. As you can imagine the opportunity to take a trip back in time using state of the art graphics imaging provides a stunning perspective on history and any number of other subjects. This is great stuff and it's hosted by Peter Weller who, believe it or not is a professional and much respected historian and college professor.
Hey Canfield,
My wife just reminded me about these NOVA episodes with similar engineering themes:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/
I don't know how easy they are to track down, but they're also quite good. The Roman Bath one is my fave.
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