I just noticed that a 4 part documentary produced by The History Channel will become available on DVD next week.

As a history lover with a particular interest in the history of the barbarian civilizations I was wondering if anyone has seen this series and can offer me any guidance as to whether or not it would be a good blind buy.

My questions are simple...

Was it well produced?

Is it truly informative?

Does it go into detail on....

Their battle strategies

Their culture

The reasons / primary goals / driving forces behind their overall "barbaric" conquests / nomadic way of life.

I looked around and didn't find any reviews at all so I am assuming that this series isn't well known.

Any info would be helpful and thanks in advance.

I know nothing of this particular program but my teacher for Early Western Civilization, who is absolutely obsessed with history and has traveled the world, has stated time and time again that no one should ever watch the History Channel if they're looking for factual information. If they wanna be entertained, then fine, but they sensationalize little things or flat out make things up to make said program more appealing. This is all according to her, but she's a fanatic of this stuff, so I thought I'd throw it out here.

I watched this series when it aired a month or so ago. I thought the shows were good--I had Tivo'd them for when I had some time to kill, but they roped me in for a marathon viewing, so that's not bad

I'm afraid I don't remember enough to give specific answers to your questions. The production value was pretty good, as you'd expect from a new (and fairly well-hyped) series on the History Channel. They showed a lot of re-enactment fighting, and it was a little cheesy, but didn't detract, IMHO.

They amounted to biographies of barbarian generals, as I recall. For example, the episode on the Mongols followed the life and military career of Genghis Khan--what is know about his childhood, what drove him, a look at his military campaigns and significant battles, his death and his impact on history.

The series was presented in two-hour chunks, but they were essentially two one-hour shows run back-to-back, so the first hour was about the Vikings and the second about the Goths, for example.

As far as historical accuracy, I suppose I am not one to comment, but it all seemed okay to me. I'm an English teacher with an interest in History, and I didn't think it was sensationalized more than I expected. The real history buffs may well disagree with me.

With one hour per culture, and given the focus on the leaders, I'm not sure they are as in-depth as you're hoping. They focused on specific battles and did give some time to the culture and motivations of the peoples in question. They did, of course, touch on the tactics that made them successful in battle, but it was geared towards the layman rather than the military historian.

Again, I wish my memory was a little better, but they passed a long afternoon without complaint from me. I had planned to keep them on the Tivo for future viewing, but had to clear out some space. They didn't make the cut in that case, I guess, but that's partly because my fiance gets a say when it comes to Tivo space

Beerfoam

I can't speak to its factuality, but I think I read that this was the most expensive documentary ever filmed.