Silver Spring, MD — The Shape of the World, a fascinating six-part documentary tracing the history of mapmaking, debuts on home video on August 4, 2009. Narrated by acclaimed actor Patrick Stewart (X-Men, Star Trek: The Next Generation) and seen on PBS in 1991, this in-depth series reveals how maps shape not only our sense of geography, but also our social, political, and even religious thinking. The three-volume DVD (www.AcornOnline.com) is being released by Athena, Acorn Media Group’s new home video brand for consumers interested in lifelong learning through documentary programming. Bonus features include a 20-page viewer’s guide.

How do we see the world? Some ancients believed it rode on the back of a turtle. The Greeks viewed it as a sphere and measured it with astonishing accuracy. Today, scientists monitor it from space, detecting complex climate patterns that threaten our survival.

Narrated by Patrick Stewart, The Shape of the World traces the history of mapmaking from crude clay tablets to sophisticated electronic screens. Internationally respected historians, NASA scientists, and other experts explain how humans rely on imagination, observation, and mathematics to create pictures that make sense of our world. Throughout history, mapmakers have provoked assassinations, won or lost wars, and opened the ways to wealth and power. Today, they help answer the crises of epidemics and climate change.

The Shape of the World was produced by ITV in consultation with the British Library and Royal Geographical Society—the world’s largest scholarly organization dedicated to the science of geography. In the United States, the series premiered on PBS stations in April 1991 and won the gold-medal for educational series at the New York International Film and Television Festival (1992).

Episodes: Heaven and Earth, Secrets of the Sea, Staking a Claim, Empire!, Pictures of the Invisible, and The Writing on the Screen

BONUS FEATURES

• 20-page viewer’s guide includes highlights, questions to consider, avenues for further learning, "Tools of the Mapmaker’s Trade," "The Math Behind a Map," and "Myths on Maps."
• "The Chartbusters": pioneers in cartography
• Text interview with Patrick Stewart and biographies of Stewart and series editor Simon Berthon
• Exclusive web extras

Athena releases provide an authoritative and entertaining learning experience through high quality, informative, non-fiction programming. `Athena’s other debut releases are Playing Shakespeare, Every Picture Tells a Story, and The People’s Republic of Capitalism. Special web content for every Athena release will be available at www.athenalearning.com. Athena’s DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com.