Curtis calls his most recent 6-part series “an emotional history of what went on inside the heads of all kinds of people.” The films are a modern history of the United Kingdom, United States, China, and Russia told through the inner lives of important and sometimes overlooked figures who found themselves at the crux of modernity’s development.
The creative decision to utilize internal thoughts conveys the series’ central thesis: the dominant theme of modern history is the rise of the individual and a new focus on the feelings, dreams, hopes, and uncertainties inside people. Curtis tells stories about what happens when those internal forces meet old power structures struggling to maintain their authority.