Can you recommend documentaries that explain world conflicts?

September 23, 2012 6:17 PM

I just finished watching The First World War and now I want more! Can you recommend your favourite documentaries on History, particularly conflicts/war? I prefer a geopolitical focus (as in maps of the territories, graphic representations of strategies, what countries unied, what empires were divided in to what, etc.)

I can finally say I have at least a clue about how or why the WWI came to happen. I would like to understand other conflicts/revolutions in the same way. I am looking for these subjects in particular, but other recommendations will be appreciated, too..

WWII and the years between WWI and WWII <-- (most wanted)
Yugoslavia and the war in the Balkans
Emancipation of European colonies
Communism in Europe
etc.

Any ideas?

posted by Tarumba to society & culture (6 answers total)

The classic for WWII is The World At War.
posted by pompomtom at 6:20 PM on September 23, 2012 [3 favorites]

Seconding "The World at War". Narration by Lawrence Olivier. Interviews (in the 70's) with surviving principals. And tons of archival footage. Top notch.
posted by bruceo at 6:58 PM on September 23, 2012

Check out The Great War if you want more WWI.
posted by rhizome at 10:09 PM on September 23, 2012

The Death of Yugoslavia from the BBC.
posted by Bektashi at 12:36 AM on September 24, 2012

The Cold War is very good. There are lots of interviews with people who were important during the time including Castro and Gorbachev.
posted by sien at 12:58 AM on September 24, 2012

On my phone so can't link, but Band of Brothers. It's a ten-hour miniseries, yes, but it's amazing.
posted by Tamanna at 7:42 AM on September 24, 2012