Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism
is a 3 hour PBS documentary film (sometimes recut as a 3 episodes
documental mini-series) hosted by Ben Wattenberg and narrated by Henry
Strozier. Its companion book is Joshua Muravchik's 2003 book of the
same name, which covers around the same material and follows pretty
much the same structure (although it is has a first chapter on Babeuf's
Conspiracy of Equals, it adds George Meany to the Samuel Gompers
chapter, the Kibbutz data are all in one conclusion, the
Tanganyica/Tanzania chapter on Third World Socialism is not divided in
two, just like the chapter on Gorbachev is not, and the decay of the
Labour Party and rise of Thatcher in the 1970s are just referred in the
beginning of the Blair chapter). It premiered in June 2005. According
to the film's official site:
«This 3-hour documentary explores one of the most powerful political
ideas in history. Socialism spread farther and faster than any
religion. Then, in almost the blink of an eye, it all collapsed. What
happened?»