| I've been watching these as often as possible for the last year that I've
subscribed to cable and have nothing but praise for his presentations.
If I'd had but one history teacher in all of my years of schooling who
took the novel approach to teaching that Burke does as he weaves his
stories, I might have had much higher respect for history as an academic
interest.
The way this guy brings together elements of history in order to explain
the impetus behind various things is uncanny.
Does anyone know if he produced this tsuff in the UK before bringing it
to the American market? And if so, was he as well received there?
-Jack
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| Re .2: I agree - but isn't "Connections 2" just a half-hour, while
"Connections" was an hour per episode? This gave Burke more time to set
up those daring leaps of connectivity: "Meanwhile, 3,000 miles away,
somebody spilled some chemicals. And you remember the fellow in that
small English village 50 years before? Well, it turns out that his
brother..."
Still, I've enjoyed all of Burke's series, and would have loved to have
seen them when I was in school. Some episodes could challenge the
viewer to "go look it up" - could it really have been that simple/hard/
quirky? And the reenactments of "excerpts from the daily life of
Keppler" or whoever tend to help me remember who did what, and when,
and - something I seldom got from my own schooling - in what social and
political context. This stuff is usually taught the way history is, a
list of inventions with names and dates (like the list of wars and
treaties with names and dates), and very little effort made to tie it
in to the daily life of the majority of the people.
Anyway - I think they're all worth watching, but the first series is
the best.
-b
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