In 2003, the Wide Angle program Time for School profiled children in seven countries-Afghanistan, Benin, Brazil, India, Japan, Kenya, and Romania-as they started their first year of school, often in the face of great adversity. Three years later this Wide Angle episode returns to visit each child, updating the progress of their educational and personal development. The similarities and contrasts that emerge among the lives of these young people provide...

The fantasies of dictators, kings, sultans, and warriors are laid bare in this program as Dan Cruikshank explores architecture as a statement of worldly power. Dan visits Nicolae Ceau?escu's palace in Romania, a colossal edifice built by the 20th century's last communist dictator; Marqab Castle in Syria, constructed by the Crusaders to control the area between Asia Minor and the Holy Land; an imposing plantation house in New Orleans that stands in...

Throughout this century, the Muslim population of southeastern Europe has been hounded and periodically massacred. Communist Bulgaria continued the pre-Communist policy of "ethnic cleansing" (a misnomer, since many of the victims are Slavs), attempting to "Bulgarize" its Turkish-speaking Muslims. After a particularly tense time in 1989, Muslims are once again permitted to practice their religion openly, but after decades of official repression, knowledge...