America: The Story of US

[Unchainme]

I think that doing a special on the history of the country is a great thing, but this one leads much to be desired. Having taken two history courses (one about europe in the modern era of history from 1500-pres., the other of American History from 1492-1865) in college taught by two excellent professors, it sort of concerns me that this show has lead to comments by people on facebook as to inferring that they've learned more in this special than in average HS american history class, which pretty much speaks volumes about the quality of education in this country, but that is for another time, with this all being said here's my issues with this program:

first off, the historical inaccuracies are astounding, from discussing Jamestown and not even mentioning why it was under attack (A bunch of prissy nobility level Englishmen were starving and resorted to STEALING from the local Native Americans) to having Paul Revere's mid night ride being incorrectly remembered as "The British are coming!" (He NEVER said this, he said "The Regulars are coming"

also the use of guilt trips and overall discussion of bad incidents occuring in this are pretty outstanding, I'm not saying that things like slavery and say, the trail of tears should be overlooked, and I do believe they SHOULD be mentioned in such a documentary, but in every other story there's some big down side to a major positive event in American history, even in the more positive ones, like the building of the Hoover dam. Rather than say highlighting the overall amusingness of how such a thing was built, and the many positives that it did end up providing, we're pretty much dragged down yet again by showing the amount of deaths that it caused several workers.

Finally, why should I really give a flying rats ass about what Al Sharpton felt about the war o 1812 or about how Michael Douglas felt of the great depression. I am not saying that those two may not be familiar with history, but for fucks sake, give me a historian or a professor well-versed in that time period, not some guy who happened to be able to make millions off of this country,

the only really positive out of all of this is that it could lead to another person garnering an interest in history, and it's better than say, wasting time watching some mindless reality show, but really, if you really want to learn about history, my suggestion is to pick out a couple of books, be they from the local library or from the local borders, and go from there.

[chefcraig]

Yeah, it really is a Cliff's Notes version of American History, isn't it? It intercuts brief commentary by dubious celebrities (who knew that former Giants player Michael Strahan and Puff Diddy were history scholars? Was Kanye not available? http://www.easyfreesmileys.com/smileys/free-rolleye-smileys-725.gif (http://www.easyfreesmileys.com/Free-Forum-Smileys/)) with rather questionable coverage of items that may have played a role in the shaping of America, but were merely footnotes leading to far greater events. It really is a hit or miss proposition, as it's display of so-called "facts" can be at best be described as lazy, and at worst be labeled as misguided revisionist history. Rather than following in the footsteps of Ken Burns (who covered much of the same material in his outstanding The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The War, and The National Parks: America's Best Idea documentaries with far more attention to detail), the producers seemed to aim not quite as high, taking the VH-1 "I Love The 70's (80's, 90's, ect.) approach. The difference being that the VH-1 programs are occasionally enlightening and entertaining.

[Unchainme]

Yeah, it really is a Cliff's Notes version of American History, isn't it? It intercuts brief commentary by dubious celebrities (who knew that former Giants player Michael Strahan and Puff Diddy were history scholars? Was Kanye not available? http://www.easyfreesmileys.com/smileys/free-rolleye-smileys-725.gif (http://www.easyfreesmileys.com/Free-Forum-Smileys/)) with rather questionable coverage of items that may have played a role in the shaping of America, but were merely footnotes leading to far greater events. It really is a hit or miss proposition, as it's display of so-called "facts" can be at best be described as lazy, and at worst be labeled as misguided revisionist history. Rather than following in the footsteps of Ken Burns (who covered much of the same material in his outstanding The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The War, and The National Parks: America's Best Idea documentaries with far more attention to detail), the producers seemed to aim not quite as high, taking the VH-1 "I Love The 70's (80's, 90's, ect.) approach. The difference being that the VH-1 programs are occasionally enlightening and entertaining.

Those Ken Burns documentaries were fantastic, I caught a bit of the Civil War one in my American History class, and thought he was able to capture what the war was, very well. I also would like to say that "The World at War" series that airs on the Military channel, that was a British production that aired in the early 1970's, still looks good and is interesting today. The use of real footage, and interviews with those actually involved on the war on both sides, make it a great viewing.

Also, the other specials on the "History Channel" that interview historians or people who are well-educated on a matter, like "Modern Marvels" or any other thing that is not a reality show, would be worth viewing.

And yes, I did, actually enjoy the "I love the.." series, because it's rather interesting, and focuses on pop culture, and interviews people who have the knowledge of such a thing, it's fun and actually introduced me to a few groups thanks to pure curiosity.

But again, like you said, that's what plagues this particular series, this is not some celebrity talking about Farrah Fawcett or about how "The Joshua Tree" is a great album, these are actual significant events that have impacted humankind in a very significant way, and it's never good to half-ass their importance.

[Hardrock69]

The producers of said documentary must have maybe grad-ew-ayted from the third grade.

You wanna see some kickass documentaries - check out the one called "Revolution" about the birth of the United States, and another about our Presidents called "The Presidents".

The Ken Burns stuff is pretty fucking good.