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Genius of the Modern World

Season 1
The 19th century was a time of revolution - in politics and in ideas. Three great thinkers led the way - Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzche and Sigmund Freud - reimagining global economics, questioning our morality and unravelling the workings of the mind. Their quest drove them to extremes - into poverty, into madness. Their ideas would bring the world as we know it kicking and screaming into being.
IMDb 7.620163 episodes13+
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Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - Marx
    June 15, 2016
    59min
    13+
    Born into affluence, Marx became an angry, idealistic radical, on the run for his political agitating and incendiary writing. In Paris, he formulated his explosive analysis of capitalism and its corrosive effects. In London, his obsession dragged his family into poverty and tragedy. How did this man, whose funeral was attended by 11 people, generate one of history’s most influential ideologies?
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  2. S1 E2 - Nietzsche
    June 22, 2016
    59min
    13+
    Nietzsche’s story is one of breathtaking success and ultimate failure. His brutal, uncompromising ideas smashed the comfortable assumptions of religion, morality and science. But how did this man, violently opposed to anti-semitism, end up being the poster boy for Hitler’s drive for the Aryan ideal? How could an anti-totalitarian thinker end up strengthening a system of rule he would have hated?
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  3. S1 E3 - Freud
    June 29, 2016
    59min
    13+
    Freud's influence is all around us. In our vocabulary - repression, penis envy, the Freudian slip - and in the freedom to talk openly about our deepest feelings and insecurities. But what do you learn when you take a Freudian approach to Freud himself? Historian Bettany Hughes travels to Vienna to discover how his childhood experiences led to the formation of the father of psychoanalysis.
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Details

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Content advisory
Violencesubstance usealcohol usesmokingfoul languagesexual content
Subtitles
None available
Directors
Rob Cowling
Producers
Rob CowlingDavid Upshal
Cast
Bettany Hughes
Studio
Open University
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