Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius

The revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels would rock society and soon affect the lives of millions of people. Here, explore their body of theory (known as "dialectical materialism"_x009d_) and learn how Marxism offered something different: a tableau of history with starring roles played by the toiling masses and economic forces.

Understand the complexities of Christopher Columbus who, in stumbling upon the Americas while attempting to reach Asia by heading West, touched off the massive Columbian Exchange of peoples, plants, commodities, and diseases. Dispel enduring myths, and explore Columbus's religious motives for launching what he called "The Enterprise of the Indies."

First, consider how the most famous PR stunt in the history of exploration--journalist Henry Stanley finding ailing Scottish explorer Dr. Livingstone in a remote town in Africa--reveals how Africa long remained the "Dark Continent" to the outside world. Then, turn to Mary Kingsley, an Englishwoman whose writing revealed West Africa to a European audience.

Meet the originator of scientific exploration, who trekked to the edge of the world so that he could see for himself what was there. Put Pytheas the Greek in the context of his time and place, sketching the Mediterranean as a cradle of civilization and examining how word of his voyage influenced later exploration.

Meet Ida Pfeiffer, a Victorian women who defied expectations by traveling around the world twice and becoming a best-selling author describing her experiences. Follow her extraordinary journeys to exotic locales and learn how she deftly escaped some perilous situations--including cannibalistic Batak warriors in the jungles of Sumatra.

Spend time with one of the most famous women radicals in history: the Polish-German socialist Rosa Luxemburg. Follow her revolutionary activities throughout Switzerland, Poland, and Germany; her support of spontaneous revolt over centralized conspiracy; her struggles with the ambiguities of revolutionary devotion; and her ultimate martyrdom.

Investigate the violent upheaval of the Paris Commune in 1871: a political experiment that lasted a mere 10 weeks. The Paris Commune would make Marx one of the most feared and hated men in the world; although it failed, Marx considered it a living example of the "dictatorship of the proletariat."

With the outbreak of the First World War, Lenin (who called war an "accelerator of history"_x009d_) had the world crisis he could turn to his advantage. Topics here include Marxist debates over the philosophies of defensism and defeatism, the arrival of Leon Trotsky and his theory of "permanent revolution,"_x009d_ and the widening rift between socialists and communists.

Take a detailed look at the life of Lenin, whose ideas and actions propelled him to become the first man to bring communist theory into power in 1917. Here, focus on Lenin's hardness in the face of the 1891-1892 famine, his manifesto "What Is to Be Done?", and the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions.

Go inside communism's journey from a collection of political and economic theories to a revolutionary movement that rocked the world. Rich with historical insights, these 12 episodes zero in on the Bolsheviks rise to power and how communist ideas worked in theory and practice - offering a rewarding look at one of the most important economic and political philosophies of the modern age.