The Men Who Built America

I happened to catch a few episodes of this series on the History Channel and it caught my interest.  The portrayals of the motivations behind the men profiled made me wonder about the current men in power.

I saw the Blu-Ray on sale yesterday at Costco and was tempted to buy it.  However looking at some of the comments at Amazon and these reviews, it appears some of the events did not have occurred as they showed it.  (And so the motivation of the creators of the series have been called into question by some.)

Still it was interesting.  I guess one might have to take it more like a movie based on historical events.

Despite the faults, I might get the DVD set one day anyway, if I can get it cheap.

Hey, here's episode 4 on youtube.  Probably won't last long.

To satisfy myself, I can probably DVR this, then record it.  (And not watch it.)

Maybe these videos might be more accurately historically:

Cornelius Vanderbilt
John D. Rockefeller
Andrew Carnegie
J.P. Morgan
Henry Ford

Wow, The American Experience in its 25th season.  Where have I been?

***

After watching this (or least part of it), I'm not a little curious about another series from The History Channel called America: the story of Us.

Hey part 1 on youtube.

Criticism?  Naturally.  Notably some complained why celebrities such as Margaret Cho, Sean Diddy Combs, Sheryl Crow, Michael Douglas et al were chosen to appear in history documentary.

*** [4/20/14]

Still looking to get the series on DVD, but now I notice it's on Amazon Prime.  And some of it has been uploaded to dailymotion.

Here are the descriptions on Amazon Prime.  There are 8 episodes, whereas they were shown on TV as four (combined) episodes.

1.  A New War Begins
2.  Oil Strike
3.  A Rivalry Is Born
4.  Blood Is Spilled
5.  A New Rival Emerges
6.  Owning It All
7.  Taking the White House
8.  The New Machine

And here's the episodes on dailymotion

1_6: William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Carnegie
2_6:  Theodore Roosevelt
3_6: J.P. Morgan (I notice this was only 25:28)
4_6: Johnstown 1889
5_6: Carnegie rethinks
6_6: electricity (Owning It All)

And I see it uploaded on youtube (will probably be taken off soon enough).

Part 1
Part 2 Bloody Battles
Part 3 Changing the Game
Part 4 When One Ends Another Begins

And the whole series in one file

And another uploader

1 of 8 - A New War Begins
2 of 8 - Oil Strike
3 of 8 - A Rivalry is Born
4 of 8 - Blood is Spilled
5 of 8 - A New Rival Emerges
6 of 8 - Owning It All
7 of 8 - Taking The White House
8 of 8 - The New Machine

So the options are: view the pirate videos, buy the DVD, buy the Blu-Ray, subscribe to Amazon Prime, buy the seasons on Amazon ($12.99 for SD, $18.99 for HD).

I see the America: The Story of Us and the Mankind: The Story of Us are also on Amazon Prime.

Maybe I'll just wait.  It's on my list at swapadvd.

[1/24/15] Now streaming on Netflix!