Teachers

In this four-part series, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson delves deep into how the complex system of global finance evolved over the centuries, how money has shaped the course of human affairs and how the mechanics of this economic system work to create seemingly unlimited wealth — or catastrophic loss.

Watch the full program on demand.

Episode #101: FROM BULLION TO BUBBLES (CC)
How did money evolve from a crude system of coins that were worth only the value of the metals they were made of to a complex global financial system of credit, treasury bonds, hedge funds and credit default swaps that have shaped the course of human history? Niall Ferguson begins his journey in Bolivia, where 500 years ago, mines built by Spanish conquistadores, using forced Incan labor, produced so much silver coinage that the currency lost its value. In Italy, however, the roots of the modern financial world, in which currency's value is based on trust, began to take shape: A system of loans and credit between Jewish lenders and Christian merchants evolved in Venice, the Medici family developed the modern-day banking system and wars between city states created the bond market. In Amsterdam, the East India Company began to sell shares of stock to the public in the early 1600s, and in Paris, a Scottish fugitive named John Law saw in this new market an opportunity for an unscrupulous scheme - not unlike Bernie Madoff's - that created the world's first stock market bubble and, after its collapse, sparked a revolution.

Episode #102: BONDS OF WAR (CC)
Money and war have long had a close relationship. In early 19th-century London, the powerful Rothschild family helped the British government finance its war against Napoleon and, despite a nearly catastrophic miscalculation of the war's duration that could have led to financial ruin, found an opportunity to create enormous wealth through the purchase of British bonds. Fifty years later, the relationship between war and money would again be felt in America's Civil War, when the Confederacy attempted, with disastrous results, to finance itself by boosting the value of its cotton - its only tangible asset - by placing an embargo on exports to Britain. In Great Britain, the Duke of Buckingham became the first great landowner to see his wealth disappear as the value of his land plummeted, marking the beginning of the end of the British aristocracy. And in 1914, the assassination of another Duke -Ferdinand - would bring an end to the first wave of economic globalization within a matter of weeks.

Episode #103: RISKY BUSINESS (CC)
The ability to calculate risk has led to the creation of enormous wealth, or when calculated incorrectly, catastrophic economic fallout. In New Orleans, Ferguson witnesses the destruction still on display from Hurricane Katrina because insurance companies were unable to cover claims to rebuild homes; the region has been deemed uninsurable ever since. The origin of the insurance industry brings Ferguson to Scotland, where, in 1744, two ministers devised calculations that would predict the risk of a person's becoming sick or dying and established a fund that would support families in such instances, giving birth to the modern insurance industry. By the mid 20th century, in order to cope with natural and manmade disasters that had exhausted private insurance, Japan eliminated risk by creating a welfare state in which the government protected every citizen from any kind of casualty. The system remained viable for decades, but today is on the verge of collapse. In the mid 1970s, Chile followed the teachings of economist Milton Friedman to become the first of many nations to dismantle its welfare state and reassume risk to create growth. Another tool of wealth creation based on risk assessment - hedging on derivatives - emerged from Chicago beginning in 1874 and has led to the creation of great fortunes by financers such as George Soros and to the downfall of firms like AIG.

Episode #104: PLANET FINANCE (CC)
By the beginning of the 21st century, the systems of credit, insurance, bond trading and stock markets had transcended all national boundaries to create a truly global economic system, opening the door to unprecedented growth, but also worldwide instability in the event of one nation's downturn. In an effort to establish more stability following the Great Depression, the U.S. government's New Deal created a "property owning Democracy," a system of federally backed savings and loans that allowed more people than ever before to buy homes by offering low interest rates and long-term mortgages. Rampant inflation in the 1970s, however, led the government to remove regulations on interest rates and opened the door to a massive scandal in the 1980s and one of the country's worst economic crises. The vulnerabilities of America's property-based economy would be felt again 20 years later, in the current economic crisis that has shaken the world. The crisis threatens "Chimerica," the symbiotic relationship between China and America in which China's vast savings from the manufacturing of cheap goods has been lent to America to fuel growth. But at what point will America's battered economy lead China to cut off its line of credit? And how might America respond? The answer, Ferguson suggests, may be found in the history of the ascent of money.

Episode #101

Episode #102: THE LION'S ROAR (CC)
The second hour focuses on the 10 years between 1929 and 1939, which have become widely known as the "Wilderness Years" during which Churchill was variously described as a "maverick", a "spent force" and a "fanatic". But then, through a remarkable set of circumstances, the war years from 1939 to 1945 became the most famous period in his amazing life. "The Lion's Roar" traces Churchill's leadership of Britain through its finest hour during the Battle of Britain to its darkest hour in 1942. His character was tested at every moment of the war. His famous speeches evoked everything about Britain that he thought was great, and so galvanized the nation.

Episode #103: THE LAST PRIZE (CC)
The final hour opens with Churchill's day trip to the Normandy beaches in June 1944. When victory in Europe finally came, Churchill led the celebrations. But in private, he was depressed, brooding about the dangers of Stalin and communism. During a 1951 election he pledged to lead Britain in the post-war age, and determined to forge a peaceful alliance between the two superpowers, the USA and USSR. One month short of his 77th birthday, Churchill became Prime Minister again. But the pressure of leadership quickly began to show and in April 1955, he resigned as Prime Minister. Incredibly, Churchill confided to a friend that he felt he hadn't achieved anything in his life. He was depressed at the lack of Britain's power and the death of the British Empire. Churchill was the embodiment of Britain and the age of imperial grandeur. When he died in January 1965, it was not only the end of an incredible life, but the end of an era.

Downloadable Teacher's Guide

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Episode #2312: THE VANISHING LIONS (CC) [content flag]
As the largest predator in Africa, the lion should have nothing to fear. But the king of the savannah is facing an uncertain future. While concentrating on the dwindling number of elephants and rhinos, nobody suspected the biggest of big cats was in trouble. When the number of lions turned out to be fewer than 30,000 and not 100,000 as previously estimated, it was clear that the great lion had become vulnerable. We hear from lion experts, farmers and Masai herdsmen as they explore solutions to the problems of saving lions and living with them.

Episode #2508: ARCTIC BEARS (CC) [content flag]
Polar bears are living on borrowed time. They are the descendents of grizzlies, long-ago evolved to live and hunt on the frozen ice of the Arctic, eating a specialized diet of seal meat. But the winters have become increasingly warmer, the ice is disappearing and raising a family becomes a much more difficult proposition when hunting time is short and food is scarce. Grizzlies, on the other hand, are masters at living off the land, making a meal from a wide variety of foods -- meats, seeds, berries, insects, fruit and honey. Their world is bountiful and expanding northward, converging with what once was the icy domain of the polar bear. As the two worlds meet, are the polar bears fated to become grizzlies once again?

Episode #2512: SUPERFISH (CC) [content flag]
They slice through the water's surface with explosive power, sail, spear and a half ton of muscle flashing in the sun. Their journeys through the open ocean are epic, their life cycle, bizarre. They are the billfish -- marlin, sailfish, spearfish and swordfish -- the largest and most highly prized of all gamefish. Emmy award-winning filmmaker and biologist Rick Rosenthal brings these incredible sea creatures to the screen as he observes tiny billfish nurseries in the wild, dives deep into secret undersea canyons, films incredible color-changing behavior and embarks on a quest for an elusive thousand-pound "grander."

Episode #2501: SILENCE OF THE BEES (CC) [content flag]
Honeybees first appeared on earth around 80 million years ago, and from the beginning have played a key role in our survival. Most fruit trees and vegetable species are entirely dependent on bees to produce, and there is no artificial replacement for natural pollination. But the bees are disappearing. Massive die-offs, first reported in November of 2006, are now the subject of international emergency research, as scientists race to discover the cause of this ecological disaster. Could it be a disease? Or is it caused by pesticides, genetically modified foods or the radiation from cell phone towers? Whatever is happening, we must solve the mystery soon and correct the problem or face unimaginable consequences.

Episode #3503: SECRETS OF THE PARTHENON (CC)
Erected by the ancient Greeks as a temple to Athena, the Parthenon has served as a church, a fortress, an ammunition dump and the model for countless banks, courthouses and museums across the world. It has been shot at, exploded, set on fire, rocked by earthquakes, looted for its magnificent sculptures and subjected to restorations that have been termed "catastrophic." Despite so much abuse and renown as an icon of Western civilization, the question of how the Parthenon was built has been largely ignored until recently. Now, thanks to the Greek government's $10 billion restoration program, scholars are finally probing the enigmas of its planning and construction. With unprecedented access, NOVA presents the inside story of the official restoration, which reaches far beyond the challenges and controversies of conserving one of the world's best-known buildings. The researchers are confronting some truly monumental riddles: How did the ancient Athenians build their great temple with incredible precision in a mere eight years? How did they manage to incorporate subtle, eye-pleasing distortions into the Parthenon's layout, such that there are few straight lines or right angles to be seen? And, most baffling of all, how did they accomplish all this without an overall building plan or blueprint, which would be indispensable to a modern architect?

Episode #3402: KINGS OF CAMOUFLAGE (CC)
Cuttlefish are one of the strangest animals on our planet. These shape-shifting creatures can hypnotize their prey, impersonate the opposite sex and even kill with lightening fast speed. More accomplished masters of disguise than any chameleon, they have an incredible ability to morph their skin color -- even their shape -- to blend into most any background. They have the largest brain-to-body ratio of all the invertebrates. But are they capable of learning and remembering complex tasks? With beautiful underwater footage and in-depth expert interviews, NOVA gets up close and personal with these bizarre and amazing animals.

Episode #3501: ASTROSPIES (CC)
While NASA astronauts were captivating the world with the Apollo lunar landings, the U.S. was engaged in a top-secret military manned space program. Investigative author Jim Bamford probes the untold story of the elite corps of clandestine astronauts who were never told of the true purpose of their training program. Bamford will travel to Russia to reveal the secrets of the Soviet response -- the prototypes of the "Almaz" military space stations that, if deployed, might have led to a Cold War showdown in outer space.

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Episode #402: SERIES 4, EPISODE 2 (CC)
Astronomers on the brink of finding "another Earth" in our galaxy, using a new planet-hunting machine: the Kepler telescope; Rudy Tanzi, a pioneer in discovering genes for Alzheimer's disease, and others who are on the hunt for the genetic key to autism; the use of computers to authenticate paintings; and a profile of spider scientist Maydianne Andrade.

Episode #403: SERIES 4, EPISODE 3 (CC)
Two drugs that may help kids with muscular dystrophy or the frail elderly, who don’t have the option of hopping on a treadmill to build strength and endurance; renowned paleontologist George Poinar, who has announced his discovery of multiple clues to parasitic pandemics that could have been just as instrumental in wiping out the dinosaurs as the hypothesized asteroid impact; a profile of rocket scientist and astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz; and the beauty — and dangers — of the northern lights.

Episode #404: SERIES 4, EPISODE 4 (CC)
The science behind our sense of taste; a product that may fulfill the dream of creating an artificial tree that can absorb carbon dioxide directly from the air; shedding light on the evolutionary roots of human language through studies of walrus and sea lion vocal and intellectual abilities; and a profile of medical engineer Sangeeta Bhatia.

Episode #405: SERIES 4, EPISODE 5 (CC)
A team of NASA scientists who will smash two SUV-sized rockets onto the lunar surface and unleash a debris cloud to study data that could provide the key to understanding how to build a permanent base on the moon; microbiologist Jack Griffith, who made a phenomenal discovery — the oldest known organic molecules on earth; research on an Australian songbird called the zebra finch, shedding light on the neuronal processes that lead from understanding sounds to producing them; and a profile of climate scientist Lonnie Thompson, aka Tropical Ice Core Man.

July's Family Choice

On December 2, 1999, a polar bear named Peace was born at Japan's Tobe Zoological Park. After his mother rejected the cub, zoo keeper Atsuhiro Takaichi took on the task of parenting and subsequently succeeded in hand-raising a polar bear for the first time ever in Japan and just the third time in the world. PEACE: THE HANDRAISED POLAR BEAR chronicles five years in the life of the young cub and the caring zoo keeper. (CC)