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8 Episodes 1997 - 1997
Episode 1
These 100 years have seen polio vanquished, smallpox eradicated, the incidence of cholera and tuberculosis severely reduced. Life expectancy around the world has risen faster this century than ever before. With the advent and widespread use of penicillin during the Second World War and a greater understanding of microbiology, astonishing advances in Western medicine and public health followed as age-old diseases were systematically tackled in the United States and around the world. Millions hoped that new drugs and medical technologies would offer them better health -- and longer lives. But the gap between what was theoretically possible and what was readily available -- or affordable -- varied greatly from country to country. Still, in these last fifty years, the population of the world has increased three times over. Throughout the developing world, children are less likely to be lost to disease. And this new generation can expect to live twenty years longer than their parents' generation. Worldwide, millions of today's newborns will live lives that could span the entire twenty-first century. But living longer and its attendant rewards have also raised unexpected new challenges for medicine and public health: how to maintain a supply of clean water and proper sanitation in the face of a rapidly growing population; how to curb pollution as more and more countries industrialize; and how to keep new strains of -- or antibiotic-resistant -- infectious disease from emerging? The people remember: Polio vaccine, March of Dimes and mass inoculation campaigns, World Health Organization, eradication of smallpox in India and Africa, advances in public health, population explosion, family planning, contraception campaigns, AIDS, resurgence of tuberculosis.
Episode 2
Communism helps modernize China, but the decisions and personality cult of Mao Tse Tung have a traumatic effect on Chinese society. Mao's Chinese Communist Party defeats the Chinese nationalists after co-opting the support of China's peasantry. Driven by ideological fervor, the Chinese people are mobilized to develop the country, although many ill-considered initiatives like the Great Sparrow Campaign and the Great Leap Forward bring famine and chaos to China. Mao directs mass movements to attack what he perceived were disloyal or ideologically impure elements in China, in particular during the Cultural Revolution. Order is only effectively restored to China following Mao's death in 1976, when Premier Deng Xiaopeng takes a more practical approach to ruling China. The introductory scene shows Mao proclaiming the People's Republic of China in Tiananmien Square in 1949.
Episode 3
The generation born at the end of World War II, indulged by parents who had lived through two world wars and a depression, were the first teenagers in history to have money to spend and lots of leisure time. Increasingly, they rejected their parents' authority and values and, realizing the strength of their numbers, tried to change the world through demonstrations, drugs, and civil causes.
Episode 4
Women struggle to win political and economic rights in societies gamed to entrench male privilege. Even with limited suffrage, after the First World War many Western women remain destined to a life of domestic servitude or limited careers. The Second World War gives women in Britain and the United States a brief opportunity to work in traditionally male industries, but they are promptly replaced at war's end. In the 1960s new household appliances, higher education and the book The Feminine Mystique inspires campaigns for equal pay and employment opportunities, such as the Dagenham strike. However women would still need to struggle against discrimination and harassment in male dominated careers. The pill helps women gain control of their fertility. In less developed areas of the world there are other issues of concern to women, including genital mutilation, dowry killings and infanticide, while in Iran a legacy of gender equality is rolled back after the Islamic Revolution Fourth World Conference on Women shows how the aspirations and achievements for women vary between rich and poor countries. The introductory scene shows the 1970 Women's Strike for Equality. Interviewees include Jacqui Ceballos and Mary Stott.
Episode 5
While in the second half of the century there are fewer conventional wars, civil conflicts under the backdrop of superpower rivalries emerge, fought by ideologically-driven guerrilla movements. While usually being small and poorly armed, their motivation, self-belief and their abilities to co-opt popular support and exploit terrain to their own advantage prove to be key factors why several guerrilla movements are successful. With only a very small band of determined supporters, Fidel Castro manages to eventually overthrow Fulgencio Batista in the Cuban Revolution. After the French are defeated by the Viet Minh in Vietnam, the Americans deploy in huge numbers, however their technological prowess, industrial might and Hearts and Minds campaigns cannot defeat the Viet Cong. Similarly in Afghanistan, the Soviets are forced to pull out by the US-armed Mujahideen. The introductory scene shows the fall of Saigon. Interviewees include Ahmed Shah Masoud, General Vo Nguyen Giap and Colonel David Hackworth.
Episode 6
Religion makes a comeback into people's lives in the Islamic world and elsewhere, as people seek guidance and spiritual sustenance during periods of modernization and social upheaval. Starting in Turkey under Atatürk, throughout the Islamic world governments introduce Western technology, fashion and culture to modernize and strengthen their countries. However public perceptions that commercialism and secularism are leading a breakdown in Islamic values galvanize Islamist movements in Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and even Turkey. The greatest transformation of society takes place following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, where Sharia law, sex segregation and veils are (re)introduced, and similar measures are adopted elsewhere. Religious fundamentalism also surfaces in the United States, Israel and India. The introductory scene features the Shah of Iran showcasing his country in 1971, and his departure in 1979.
Episode 7
By the 1970s the people in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were becoming aware of the economic failures of central planning. Propaganda and an intrusive security apparatus were now needed to maintain control, particularly after the appearance of Western consumer goods and culture in the Eastern Block, and Pope John Paul II's visit to Poland, raised public discontent with their entrenched governments. From 1985 new Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev introduces reforms to encourage openness and initiatives to stop stagnation. Gorbachev also allows Eastern Europe to set their own destinies. In 1989 Hungary begins dismantling the Iron Curtain and Poland holds free elections; the absence of a Soviet response encourages people in the more hard-line states of East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania to eventually overthrow their leaders. Gorbachev's reforms triggers an unsuccessful coup in 1991, eventually leading to the end of the Communist Party and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The introductory scene shows the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Episode 8
Governments around the world liberalize trade and withdraw from intervening in the economy, giving new opportunities to those who are skilled, industrious and adaptable, but disrupts the social order for others. In the United States, Proposition 13 is the precursor to Reaganism, and the inequalities that later emerge lead to the LA riots and the rise of gated communities. Russian society struggles to adapt to a market economy, and in Bosnia and elsewhere the demise of socialism revives ethnic tensions and separatism. However in China economic reforms started by Deng Xiaopeng lift living standards, and the internet allows high-skill work to be transferred from the West to India. We ends with the narrator noting how globalization has contributed to one of the most significant achievements of the twentieth century - that more people have control over their own destinies than ever before. Interviewees include Donald Hodge and Mike Eruzione.