Season 1
6 episodes · 1977
1The Modern War: From French Revolution to French Empire
AJP Taylor argues that the French Revolution was the first modern war as it saw the first challenge to dynasticism and conservatism by nationalism and liberalism.
2Two Contrasting Wars
AJP Taylor on the origins of modern wars, from the French Revolution to the Cold War. He discusses the Crimean War and the war of national liberation in Italy.
3Bismarck's Wars
AJP Taylor talks about Prussia's conflicts under Bismarck, including the Prusso-Austrian War in 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.
4The First World War
AJP Taylor presents his interpretation of the causes of the First World War, rejecting Fifties' theories attributing the outbreak of hostilities to German design.
5The Second World War
AJP Taylor, the noted historian and one of the first to popularise history through television, considers when World War II started and why.
6The Cold War
AJP Taylor considers the origins of the Cold War, citing a history of mistrust between the US and Soviet Russia owing to religious differences, influence in the Middle East, land claims made at the end of the Second World War and the ideological divisions of communism.