The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century

The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century is a 1996 documentary series that aired on PBS. It chronicles World War I over eight episodes. It was narrated by Dame Judi Dench in the UK and Salome Jens in the United States.

The series won two Primetime Emmy Awards: one for Jeremy Irons for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance, the other for Outstanding Informational Series. In 1997, it was given a Peabody Award.

The documentary series was produced by KCET/Los Angeles along with the BBC and London’s Imperial War Museum. It took five years to make and cost five million dollars. Blaine Baggett was the executive producer and Jay Winter was the chief historian. It aired in the United States on PBS in November 1996.

In contrast to a previous (1964) BBC production titled The Great War which focused primarily on the military and political aspects of the war, this 1996 documentary, in keeping with more recent trends in historiography, used a wide variety of types of sources to cover social, cultural, economic, and personal perspectives on the war in addition to the military and political.

The documentary was a critical success and received several awards:

A book of the same title, authored by Blaine Baggett and Jay Winter, was released along with the broadcast of the television series in 1996. Like the television series, the book covers social, cultural, economic, and other issues in addition to the political and military aspects of the war. Though the book is a companion to the television series, it is written to stand on its own as a history of the war.

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