Genius of the Modern World

She has no idea who Nietzsche is. They totally misunderstood his ideologies. On the other hand, it is a shame to talking about skin illness of Marx. This can not be a topic of a respected documentary.

Bettany Hughes, a historian and author, takes viewers on a journey into the tumultuous times of late 19th century, when 3 particular intellectuals perfected their mind-boggling ideas. Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud are examples of those larger-than-life thinkers who, through their penetrating insights into human condition, crystallized their ideas and ended up transforming the world and ushering in the 20th century. The world was never the same.

As a huge fan of factually accurate and documentaries (e.g., Sir Ken Clark and Carl Sagan) with an educational as well as reflective bent, I loved this 3-part series. Interspersed with beautiful visuals of visits of Ms. Hughes to many of the actual places of interest in the lives of these gentlemen, the narrator also interviews several leading scholars on the various aspects of their intellectual and personal life. I can't recommend it enough.

I only watched the first episode, and that's enough. Packed with inaccurate information, some being not circumstantiated. It would appear the whole point is to make the viewer think Marx was mentally ill and an alcoholic. Political statements disguised as historical facts. A mixture between superficiality and the worst manipulative journalism.

They talk about Marx as if he was a mass killer... They completely misunderstood his ideas, this is misinformation! It was the dictators of communist states that we're the "bad" guys, not Marx. If we would follow his ideologies life would be good so please don't watch this!

This is a 3-part BBC follow-up to Genius of the Ancient World (2015). Host Bettany Hughes examines three big thinkers who ushered in the modern 20th century; Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. There is an inherent improvement over the previous series. I know very little about the lives of these three famous names. Even their groundbreaking works are only bumper sticker slogans to me. So a lot of this series is new information and that's very compelling. In a way, these three episodes are much darker, more tragic, and more human. That also makes their stories more complex and more fascinating. They can be depressing. They have powerful echoes throughout the modern world. It's an interesting dive into these big names.