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July 29, 2015 12:44 AM   Subscribe

In 1983, at the height of the Cold War, the National Film Board of Canada produced War with Gwynne Dyer, a seven part series in which the historian Gwynne Dyer traced the evolution of total warfare from its origins to the present day.

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist and military historian. The series has Dyer as narrator, traveling through ten countries, interviewing soldiers, veterans and military specialists, both in NATO and Warsaw Pact countries. For episode five the series traveled to the Middle East and found themselves in the middle of Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

The individual episodes (capsule descriptions):
  1. The Road to Total War
  2. Anybody's Son Will Do
  3. The Profession of Arms
  4. The Deadly Game of Nations
  5. Keeping the Old Game Alive
  6. Notes on Nuclear War
  7. Goodbye War
(The Wikipedia entry on the series thinks there was an eight episode, but I haven't been able to find confirmation online)
posted by MartinWisse (7 comments total) 43 users marked this as a favorite
 
The first seven were National Film Board productions. The eighth was PBS via KCTS Seattle.

(per War on Film: Military History Education, Video Tapes, Motion Pictures, and Related Audiovisual Aids)

posted by fredludd at 3:21 AM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


Has it really been 32 years? I still quote from this series!
posted by Mogur at 4:07 AM on July 29, 2015


This looks fascinating. With the wife out of town this weekend, I have some good viewing ahead of me. Thanks!
posted by slogger at 5:16 AM on July 29, 2015


Watched the first few mins... yeah, good old eighties when we were all going to be obliterated any minute, fun times.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:00 AM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


I remember being shown this in early high school. Maybe it was geography class? It wasn't so long ago. Early 2000s.
posted by Evstar at 6:16 AM on July 29, 2015


I consider his book War one of the most enlightening I've ever read. Also his personal site http://www.gwynnedyer.com is also interesting and seems to be updated with his articles roughly monthly.
posted by BurnMage at 1:37 PM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]


Dyer's column is syndicated, so you might be able to find it in a paper near you. The one that I know that carries it and updates on a regular basis is The Georgia Straight: http://www.straight.com/user/215
Dyer's website is about 1 month or so behind in the columns, which is pretty standard. Still: recommended reading for what's going on in World affairs from an intelligent, wide reaching, not-hysterical, and non-biased (that I'm able to tell) viewpoint.
posted by Zack_Replica at 1:57 PM on July 29, 2015 [2 favorites]


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