Free European History Documentaries

The eminent art historian Sir Kenneth Clark was commissioned to write and present an epic examination of Western European culture, defining what he considered to be the crucial phases of its development. Civilisation: A Personal View by Lord Clark would be more than two years in the making, with filming in over 100 locations across 13 countries.

End of Empire chronicles the last days of British rule around the globe, through the remarkably candid reminiscences of both colonisers and the colonised. The series, a Granada Television production, uses old newsreel film and interviews with former British and colonial officials.

The Adventure of English is a British television series (ITV) on the history of the English language presented by Melvyn Bragg as well as a companion book, also written by Bragg. The series ran in 2003.

This documentary takes an in-depth look at the witch hunts that swept Europe just a few hundred years ago. False accusations and trials led to massive torture and burnings at the stake and ultimately to the destruction of an organic way of life.

Robert Bartlett tells the story of England's most dysfunctional yet longest ruling royal dynasty.

In August 1944, five years after the start of World War II, the people of Warsaw, armed with just a few guns and gasoline bombs, rose up against the German occupation of their city....

Documentary which tells the fascinating and poignant story of the closure of Britain's mental asylums. In the post-war period, 150,000 people were hidden away in 120 of these vast Victorian institutions all across the country.

Man of Aran is a 1934 British fictional documentary (ethnofiction) film directed by Robert J. Flaherty about life on the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland.

Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis is a 1927 German film directed by Walter Ruttmann, co-written by Carl Mayer and Karl Freund. The film is an example of the city symphony film genre. A musical score for an orchestra to accompany the silent film was written by Edmund Meisel.

A study of the events in Paris in May 1968. The film-makers have used film shot among the students demonstrating, footage from newsreel coverage of the disturbances as well as a few shots taken at a later date.