The Complete DVD History of U.S. Wars, 1700-2004, an eight-part series packaged in a four-volume set. Looks impressive, doesn't it? Sure, until you realize that each part is a mere 28 minutes long. Yes, that's right: there's less than an hour's worth of programming on each disc, and the "complete" history clocks in under four hours. How complete can it possibly be?

The series, produced in 2004, is hosted by George Kennedy, who provides an enthusiastically patriotic perspective on the material; it's quite clear that the filmmakers' perspective is that all these wars were a natural result of the U.S.'s enterprising spirit and indomitable desire for freedom and self-sufficiency (or something like that). Once the actual content of the episode starts, Kennedy is replaced by an uncredited narrator who does a reasonable job of relating the material, though, not surprisingly, he often sounds rather hurried.

Most of the episodes cram several conflicts into the 28 minutes of running time; only the Revolutionary War gets its own episode (Part 2). It's interesting how the program sorts the various wars into topical categories, reflecting the position of the U.S. at the time. The 18th-century wars on the North American continent (Queen Anne's War, the War of Jenkins' Ear, the French and Indian War, Pontiac's War) are presented in Part 1: "Wars for the Continent." Early 19th-century wars including the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War appear in Part 3: "Manifest Destiny Wars," while the Civil War shares its episode with the U.S. war against Mexico (Part 4). Part 5: "The Imperial Wars" touches on the U.S. attacks on Native Americans, the Spanish-American War, and World War I. "The Global Wars" (Part 6) covers World War II and the Korean War, while Part 7: "The Cold War" includes material on the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam. Finally, Part 8: "The Police Wars" finishes up Vietnam and moves on to the Grenada conflict and the two Gulf Wars.

Looking on the bright side, I'll note that the series makes good use of maps, with color-coded and clearly labeled images presenting the areas of contention in various conflicts.

But despite the potential interest of seeing different conflicts considered thematically as well as chronologically, there no getting around the fact that it's basically impossible to cover this material in the extraordinarily abbreviated time that this film allots for each episode. There's absolutely no time for reflection in any of the coverage: we get an overview of the barest facts – who's attacking whom – and some attention to changing military tactics over time, but there's not the slightest consideration of the larger cultural, social, or historical context for any of these conflicts. There's simply an overriding sense that the U.S. had every right to get into its wars, that the growth and development of its military was (and is) a good as well as a natural thing (for instance, the "demoralization" of the U.S. military is presented as the main negative consequence of the Vietnam War), and that the fact of the U.S.'s superpower status carries with it the right to meddle in any situation, anywhere in the world.

The rah-rah military bias appears in the earlier as well as the later episodes, but it certainly gets stronger as the material approaches the present day. In "The Police Wars," for instance, there's not the slightest hint that oil interest had anything to do with the U.S.'s intervention in Kuwait. Likewise, the episode claims that the second Gulf War was justified by the need to pre-empt a global threat by removing Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction... but instead of pointing out that no such weapons (or production facilities) were found, the episode moves on to assert that the other good reason for the war was the removal of Hussein. In fact, by showing images of suited people working in a biological weapons facility (location unstated) while discussing the potential for WMD in Iraq, the episode gives the misleading impression that there were, in fact weapons of mass destruction found there. Folks, this is what revisionist history looks like.

But even apart from any bias in the material, I consider it to be downright irresponsible to present a history of the involvement of the U.S. in global warfare without considering the larger implications of those conflicts, or their historical and social context. By presenting nothing more than the bare outline of events, the film suggests that these wars were inevitable or even desirable, insofar as they expanded U.S. hegemony. Is that true? Perhaps, perhaps not: but in any case, we can only learn from history if we consider it in its context and ponder what it actually means. Rattling off the dates and places of an assortment of wars doesn't provide for a genuine understanding of the material; it just becomes a collection of meaningless trivia. Sadly, all we get in this four-DVD set is trivia.

The DVD

The Complete DVD History of U.S. Wars is a four-DVD set, with two 28-minute episodes per DVD. Each disc is packaged in its own plastic keepcase, with all four fitting into a paper slipcase.

Video

The image for The Complete DVD History of U.S. Wars appears in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The picture quality varies, as you would expect given that it's made up of footage from a variety of sources. For the most part, it's reasonably clear and watchable, though rather soft. While the older video sources are understandably more worn than the newer elements, even what looks like modern-day stock footage is often quite noisy and full of flaws.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack is adequate, with the voiceover narration coming across in a clear and natural manner. The only real fault is that the background music tends to be too loud compared to the voiceover.

Extras

On the special features section of each disc, we can view the maps that were presented in that volume's two episodes. That's it for material that's immediately accessible. There's also some DVD-ROM content included: printable versions of the maps, along with timelines, teachers' guides, and test questions.

Final thoughts

The Complete DVD History of U.S. Wars is a complete wash as an informative documentary: with each of its eight episodes only running 28 minutes, it's woefully anything but complete. While the barest outlines of each war is presented, there's no time for any consideration of the conflicts in detail, let alone their social and historical context. The result is a pointless assemblage of war footage that zips along from one date-and-place to the next. It's possible that the set could be useful for a teacher as an audio-visual aid while teaching a more in-depth lesson on some of these conflicts, but the episodes certainly can't stand by themselves. If you are interested in the history of warfare, do yourself a favor and check out The World at War (for World War II) or The Century of Warfare (for 20th century warfare) instead. As for The Complete DVD History of U.S. Wars, just skip it.