Episode guide

Civilisation: Season 1

13 episodes · first aired Feb 23, 1969

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1 The Skin of Our Teeth Feb 23, 1969 · 50m In this the first episode Clark travels from Byzantine Ravenna to the Celtic Hebrides, from the Norway of the Vikings to Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen, telling his story of the Dark Ages…
2 The Great Thaw Mar 2, 1969 · 50m In the second episode Clark tells of the sudden reawakening of European civilisation in the twelfth century . He traces it from its first manifestations in the Abbey of Cluny to its high…
3 Romance and Reality Mar 9, 1969 · 50m Beginning at a castle in the Loire, then travelling through the hills of Tuscany and Umbria to the cathedral baptistry at Pisa as he examines both the aspirations and achievements of the…
4 Man: The Measure of all Things Mar 16, 1969 · 50m Visiting Florence, where, Clark argues, European thought gained a new impetus from its rediscovery of its classical past. He also visits the palaces at Urbino and Mantua, other centres of…
5 The Hero as Artist Mar 23, 1969 · 50m Here Clark takes us back to 16th century Papal Rome noting the convergence of Christianity and antiquity. He discusses Michelangelo, Raphael, and da Vinci, the courtyards of the Vatican…
6 Protest and Communication Mar 30, 1969 · 50m Here Clark takes us back to the Reformation. That is to the Germany of Albrecht Duerer and Martin Luther, the world of the humanitarians Erasmus, Montaigne, and Shakespeare.
7 Grandeur and Obedience Apr 6, 1969 · 50m Again in Rome of Michelangelo and Bernini, Clark tells of the Catholic Church's fight against the Protestant north, the Counter-Reformation and the Church's new splendour symbolized by the…
8 The Light of Experience Apr 13, 1969 · 50m Here Clark tells of new worlds in space and in a drop of water that the telescope and microscope revealed, and the new realism in the Dutch paintings which took the observation of human…
9 The Pursuit of Happiness Apr 20, 1969 · 50m Here Clark talks of the harmonious flow and complex symmetries of the works of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart — and the reflection of these in the Rococo churches and palaces of Bavaria.
10 The Smile of Reason Apr 27, 1969 · 50m Here Clark discusses the Age of Enlightenment tracing it from the polite conversations in the elegant Parisian salons of eighteenth-century, through the subsequent revolutionary politics…
11 The Worship of Nature May 4, 1969 · 50m Belief in the divinity of nature, Clark argues, usurped Christianity's position as the chief creative force in Western civilisation and ushered in the Romantic movement. Here Clark visits…
12 The Fallacies of Hope May 11, 1969 · 50m Here Clark argues that the French Revolution led to the dictatorship of Napoleon and the dreary bureaucracies of the nineteenth century and traces the disillusionment of the Romanticism…
13 Heroic Materialism May 18, 1969 · 50m Clark concludes the series with his discussion of materialism and humanitarianism of the past century. This takes us from the industrial landscape of nineteenth century England to the…