Educational Media Reviews Online

This series is comprised of two separate DVDs. The first has the subtitle The Power of Knowledge, and discusses the Age of Enlightment, the social movement that took place in the eighteenth century where the importance of freedom of thought apart from the dictates of religion and state became an intellectual crusade. Many of the individuals who laid the foundations for this movement are detailed in this DVD, including Erasmus Darwin, Denis Diderot, Immanuel Kant, the Marques de Pombal, and Isaac Newton.

The second DVD has the subtitle Changes in Society, which documents how the ideals of the Enlightenment intellectuals were actually put into practice by three individuals: 1) Frederick the Great, whose concept of "enlightened absolutism" engendered religious tolerance in Prussia at the beginning of the nineteenth century; 2) Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence for the new country in America at the end of the eighteenth century; and 3) Nicolas de Condorcet, who was a strong proponent and writer condemning slavery and advocating for civil rights and gender equality. Both of these films, under their overall title, are an excellent way to teach the concepts and important personages of the Enlightenment through media, and in less than two hours. I strongly recommend these videos for junior high through adult learners interested in understanding the foundations of the United States as well as the ideas and thoughts that resulted in significant social movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.