I prefer to stay away from "History Channel" type programs, as it's come to my attention that while some of it is alright, they can sometimes be horribly historically inaccurate or over ambitious in making certain claims. Because I'm not an historian, and don't really have the means of knowing the difference, I generally avoid those types of programs altogether.
However, I recently came across the "Fall of Civilizations" channel, and I'd really like to dive into it. But I'm paranoid that it's just going to be another History Channel analog, irresponsibly making wild, unsubstantiated claims, that I won't have the means to identify.
Is Paul M.M. Cooper a well respected historian? Could his material be worth digging into?
Here's his bio on his website:
Here are the videos on his channel:
I, too, recently came across this series and was immediately engrossed in its blend of striking visuals and historical narrative. I think I detected at least one false note, though, in the eighth episode, about Sumer, when Cooper says that cities came into being as people in smaller communities were forced to cooperate in ever-larger, more complicated social and political organizations in order to more effectively irrigate their lands and grow food. It's pretty well established that irrigation projects were successfully managed and developed for hundreds of years before anything like the first cities were established. I think I picked this up in one of James Scott's books.