Impossible Peace

If you search through American television channels for historical documentaries, I would not be surprised if 50% of them are about WWII. However, despite a huge (and lazy) reliance on these shows for entertainment, very little in them really focuses on anything other than the Nazis...as if, somehow, they arrived in some sort of political and social vacuum. "Impossible Peace" is important because it only focuses on politics and society between WWI and WWII....and helps to explain the ascendance of the Nazi party. In other words, it explains how the times helped to enable these fascists to take power. As such, it's a very important documentary series.

The show consists of eight episodes, each covering about 2 1/2 years from 1919 to 1939. And, using narration, expert analysis and archival footage, they tell this story and tell it mostly well. Sure, as a retired history teacher, I could find a few faults...but overall an extremely well made series and one that is like a breath of fresh air amidst all the WWII documentaries.

It feels like a very long newsreal something you would see in a movie theater in the 1940s. Music is too loud which makes trying to hear and understand the narrators almost impossible. Covers too much information. Covers nearly every notable event from World War I to the beginning World War II most of which had absolutely nothing to do with an "impossible peace" . Things like the large diamond ring belonging to Al Capone and the dance crazes of the roaring twenties. The actual coverage of events was so terse, one was left wondering what they were talking about. Frustrating and disappointing. Waste of time.

So much of this documentary can be imagined as spoken from our future. So many outrageous and " unacceptable " behaviors from Mussolini and Hitler are being glorified again and parroted by you leaders in 2020. Let this be a warning to us all.

Awesome series. Gave 9 stars because it could have been a couple episodes longer. Also could have gone into detail on a couple more key figures. BUT those figures were military and I think this focuses quite well on the foreign politics of the time. Politics is setup for any history of conflict. Very difficult to convey, but this series does well. With historical politics, you're tasked with presenting prevailing attitudes of politicians and the people involved. This was obviously too massive and this series is an overview. It has to be.

Details a time that I think is misunderstood at the least, forgotten at most. You see quickly that WWII was inevitable. Sad. Democracy was not recognized widely enough. The world had to go through growing pains first.

Well worth your time, if your into history the least bit.

Endlessly fascinating, I can watch these repeatedly and never tire. One of my favorite aspects is the uncredited narration of Jeremy Irons, continuing in the long tradition of British war documentaries narrated by luminaries such as Laurence Olivier - great script, leavened with humor, he's fully engaged and really elevates the material. Took me awhile to put the two and two together, but he starred in Brideshead Revisited in the 80s - which covers the same time period. I'm sure he immersed himself in the period history for that role, and he truly brings it alive in this narration. Brilliant production all around, the echoes ripple to our current era to haunting affect.