National Geographic's apocalypses of human social psychology

The general title of these two National Geographic series is "Apocalypse" (http://natgeotv.com/asia/apocalypse-world-war-i; http://natgeotv.com/asia/apocalypse-the-second-world-war), by which the creators mean terrible, dramatic events in human history (since not the end of the world). But what the two series really are is an apocalypse, an un-covering (Greek apokalupsis, from apokaluptein ‘uncover, reveal,’ from apo- ‘un-’ + kaluptein ‘to cover.'), a revealing of the human being, individually, socially and collectively.

These films can be viewed more usefully as lessons in realistic social psychology than as just past, if relevant, history.