The most powerful individuals of modern times FDR, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin seem to have had no common characteristics except an ambition to lead, a taste for power and a belief that they had been chosen by destiny.
EPISODE 1
A New Map of the World: 1918-1928
Winston Churchill struggles to resume a political career; Gandhi begins the fight that will bring his people their freedom; Major Dwight D. Eisenhower serves as Gen. Douglas MacArthur's chief of staff; Ho Chi Minh in Paris; Mussolini grabs power.
EPISODE 2
Feast & Famine: 1929-1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes president; Hitler becomes chancellor in Germany; Mussolini secures absolute power; Gandhi leads the "Salt March."
EPISODE 3
The Shadows Lengthen: 1934-1937
Italians invade Ethiopia; Germans occupy the Rhineland and annexes Austria; civil wars take hold in Spain and China; Mao Zedong leads the Chinese Communist Party to safety.
EPISODE 4
Darkest Hour: 1938-1940
The Spanish civil war reaches a bloody climax; Neville Chamberlain invents "shuttle diplomacy" at Munich, joining Hitler and Mussolini; peace is the last thing on Hitler's mind.
EPISODE 5
World War: 1941-1944
Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, their military leaders and their opponents to dominate both public and daily life; Eisenhower is still in the game; 26-year-old John F. Kennedy's PT 109 sinks in the Solomon Islands.
EPISODE 6
A New World: 1945-1949
Roosevelt dies; Churchill is thrown out of office; Mussolini is shot; Hitler commits suicide; Harry S. Truman becomes president; Stalin sets the scene for 40 years of Cold War; Gandhi is assassinated.
Mike Kenneally
Jane Barrett
