Submitted by AutoModerator t3_121l60d in history
quantdave t1_je9uc6x wrote
Reply to comment by JoJoCa3 in Weekly History Questions Thread. by AutoModerator
Do you mean a single-episode treatment covering the entire history of each of China, Japan or WW2? That's a big ask, because it would be impossible to do justice to the subject without the thing running to series length. I suppose you might just be able to squeeze an overview of Japan or WW2 into 3-4 hours, but it would have to leave out vast amounts: for China without even Japan's dynastic continuity or reasonably compact geography, it would be a hopeless exercise.
Video can be good at relating individual themes or events, but for the whole story there's really nothing else for it but reading - and even then a single treatment gives you only one version of events and their cause and significance (unless it brings in multiple scholarly viewpoints, which is a good format but adds to the length), so you need a few different takes to begin to form a rounded picture (not all necessarily book-length - journal articles can be valuable for specific events or topics).
Each is really too big to take on in a single bound, so it's far better to tackle individual periods or themes ("events" not so much at first, they're better understood once you've the context). But video has its limitations, and I suspect you're drawing a blank in your search because here you're encountering those limitations.
JoJoCa3 t1_jeaialz wrote
I probably could have phrased that better, with documentary I don't really mean a single episode. A series is perfectly fine for me. I'll read up a bit as well.
quantdave t1_jeak383 wrote
OK, I understand now. I'd really like to see a good series on China or Japan, but sadly I've never encountered any that fit the bill. For WW2 the UK series The World at War (26 hour-long episodes) remains highly regarded, though I still recall the BBC's earlier 6-part Grand Strategy as a good overview. The latter sadly seems forgotten, but a search for the former may be rewarding. ;)
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