A view of world history in 13 parts by JOHN ROBERTS
The Victorians took it for granted that the world was getting better. Progress was the idol of the day. Tennyson wrote of 'the march of mind'. The Industrial Revolution marked changes as great as the French Revolution which it followed and, as history speeded up, revolutionary ideology spread round the world. One transforming idea was that the purpose of politics was to bring about social and institutional change. With that went other unsettling Western exports - ideas like 'nationalism' and 'socialism', the great secular religions of our time.
John Roberts describes the age of industry, of the great Italian nationalist Garibaldi, and the French socialist Jean Jaures. 'Nationalism has turned the world upside-down: the most powerful revolutionary force in the world....'
Sound recordist COLIN MARCH Film cameraman DEREK BANKS Film editor KEITH LONG Executive producer CHRISTOPHER MARTIN
Producer DENIS MORIARTY