Produced by M. Minter Culver in 1940-41, the “Story of Civilization” was a series of educational films intended to tell the story of mankind through the use of stock footage culled from industrial films. This 1941 film “Land of Our Forefathers” looks at some of the different nationalities that have immigrated to the United States (the film uses the term “races”). It is divided into four chapters and looks at the French, Germans, English, and Russians with footage from each country on the basis of stereotypes for each group. The French are shown as individualistic, the Germans as industrious, the English as warriors, and the Russians as modernizing. Each chapter, except for the one on the English, also ends with a traditional folk dance for each cultural group.

0:09 Title “The Land of our Forefathers”, 0:19 Title “A Unit in the Series Story of Civilization”, 0:38 immigrants coming off a ship and being checked at US immigration, 1:17 different angles of the Acropolis in Athens, 1:51 Aerial footage of Rome including the Colosseum, 2:16 Roman Chariot race scene, 2:51 Map of Europe overlaying the different “races” including the Romans, Celtic, Germans, English, Slavs, 5:17 scenic views of a forest in France, 5:40 beautiful flower covered field with a farmer and his cows, 6:36 farmers in donkey drawn carriages on a road, 7:03 scenes from inside a rural French village including of animals, children, and a drummer, 7:27 men and women making wooden shoes by hand, 7:57 a wedding scene from France with people in traditional clothes, 8:36 start of a dance between a group of men and women in traditional clothes, 9:40 different scenes of a gothic church while mass is taking places, 10:51 overview of a large industrial complex in Germany contrasted with close ups of a gothic cathedral, 11:28 the Wuppertal Suspension railway, driving through the city, 12:07 Coal miners working in a coal mine, 12:46 employees in a steel factory creating steel plates, 13:26 a crowd waving to a large passenger ship, the “Europa” leaving Hamburg harbor, 13:45 Steam train pulling into a station, 14:09 a scenic village with a little girl herding geese, 15:13 countryside scenes including animals fighting, a rooster screaming, and farmers plowing their field with an ox, 15:40 farmers head to the fields while an old man checks the wheat if it is ready to harvest, 16:03 men and women harvest the wheat from the fields, 17:07 different shots of people in a very scenic landscape, 17:32 a band plays while people in traditional clothes dance with each other, 19:10 Aerial overview of a coastal city in England, 19:40 shots of different beautiful houses in a quaint English village, 20:47 a Druid altar, 20:54 a farmer leading his sheep onto a pasture, 21:20 views of different castles, 21:43 historic reenactment of women spinning in a castle, 22:17 reenactment of a historic battle with knights in armor and men on horses in front of a castle, 23:55 shot of London from the top of the house of Parliament, 24:00 the King of England’s horse drawn carriage on the way to parliament with a long procession of horses and soldiers, 24:43 farmers on tractors ploughing a huge field on a collective farm in Russia, 25:20 a large group of farmers march to begin the harvest and harvest crops, 26:09 large combine harvester harvest wheat, 26:42 close up footage of how a thresher works, 27:35 farm workers collect their lunch and eat together, 28:25 massive grain elevator shown, 28:44 different scenes of irrigation canals and industrial plants, 29:03 a new modern Soviet apartment block, 29:23 children playing in a kindergarten, 29:41 children and adults dancing including traditional Russian dances, 30:18 an annual field day in Moscow with organized gymnastics and full stadium watching and clapping, 31:47 the statue of liberty, 32:04 closing title “story of civilization”

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com