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richfed
Sachem
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 13 2002
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 Posted - May 09 2010 : 09:20:50 AM
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The History Channel has been running a 6-week long series billed as an exhaustive history of America. The third part airs tonight - 9PM EDT [although it reruns frequently during the week].
Has anyone been watching this? Curious as to your observations/opinions!!
Overall, I'd say they have done a pretty decent job with this production. Obviously, it is no easy task to cover it all in just 6 episodes, and this show clearly doesn't. Just a brief mention of Columbus and none at all of our namesake, Americus Vespucci. Oddly, the series begins, for all intents & purposes, at Jamestown, VA. To date, I've just watched the first night [2nd is on my DVR, but time constraints have not yet allowed me to watch it] -- the first night's 2 hour premiere had 2 installments, Rebels and Revolution. I was surprised to realize that I had been to every location they covered - and then some - Jamestown, Plymouth, Boston, Philadelphia, NYC, Saratoga, Valley Forge, Yorktown, etc. Major flaw - during a discussion of Ben Franklin's system of Post Roads, their CGI effects showed western terrain. Stuff like that annoys the hell out of me. How can someone be so careless? But, like I say, it was interesting and a good overview of our beginnings ...
My biggest gripe might be with some of their choices for commentators -- Michael Douglas, Tom Brokaw, Donald Trump, etc. -- all Americans are entitled to their perspectives and opinions, and much of what they say is certainly valid, but I would much rather listen to the opinions of those who have studied these events for a lifetime - learned historians, in other words - at least in a production like this one.
Anyone else watch????
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Seamus
Guardian of Heaven's Gate
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 19 2002
Status: offline
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Posted - May 09 2010 : 11:00:20 AM
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I watched the first one....sentiments much like yours. I was a bit irritated and disappointed by it, so I did not watch the second installment; doubt if I will watch it tonight, either.
The history of America started LONG before the AWI, and that was not treated well at all, to my total dissatisfaction. Looks like a revisionist history in many ways.......another means/tool to teach our youth the wrong stuff. I can just see it being forced into the schools in the not too distant future. I'll be ready to scream and kick if it does show up there around here! |
Life's journey is not to
arrive at the grave safely
in a well preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways,
totally worn out, shouting
'...holy sh*t ...what a ride!'
~~Mavis Leyrer, Seattle
Seamus
~~Aim small, hit the b*****d right between the eyes!~~ |
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Fitzhugh Williams
Mohicanland Statesman
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
July 17 2005
Status: offline
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Posted - May 09 2010 : 11:12:49 AM
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| I went to sleep on the first showing. Really bad!!! A new low for the History Channel. They would do well to stick with Ice Road Truckers or Pawn Stars, something they understand. |
"Les deux pieds contre la muraille et la tete sous le robinet" |
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Monadnock Guide
Council of Elders
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
March 14 2005
Status: offline
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Posted - May 09 2010 : 3:19:17 PM
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| I pretty much share your opinion Rich, - especially about Douglas, Brokaw & Trump, wouldn't have been very hard to find better commentators. It also bugged me to see them showing the Colonials as going to the armory to have a rifle handed to them. Those guys had rifles at home - not the local armory. Came across as shot at the Second Amendment as it's viewed today. |
you can keep "The Change" |
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richfed
Sachem
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 13 2002
Status: offline
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Posted - May 15 2010 : 5:41:12 PM
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Have finally caught up with the series, having just watched the episodes on the Civil War and the Railroads. I can't say whether or not this is representative of the entire production, but in one 90 second span - dealing in an area I know much about, The Little Bighorn - the show was simply laced with errors.
Setting it all up was a quote by Sheryl Crow [renowned historian, of course] who says something similar to this paraphrase: "The wars with Native Americans was our biggest dark spot; one which I would like to see retold and rewritten." Refreshing, in that she came right out and said - and the show aired it - that she is a proponent of revisionist history. It is what it is. The facts are well known. We can really only rewrite the "bent" - the spin, if you will. It is wrong to rewrite the past with our current value set. It just doesn't work.
Anyway, the 90 seconds:
-- The Sioux were forced deep into the Black Hills: NOT! In fact, back in 1874 during a Custer-led expedition into these Hills, it was noted how few Indians were encountered. The Sioux lived on the Plains. The Hills were a sacred place; are to this day. They visited for worship. The Indians Custer fought in 1876 were the very Indians who were not about to be forced anywhere.
-- Custer was on a reconnaissance mission: NOT! He was looking, but it is generally accepted that he was the attack prong of a very large 3-pronged effort to round up these "wild" Indians to the reservation. Clearly, a force that large is not sent out merely to reconnoiter.
-- All the men in Custer's REGIMENT were killed: NOT! About a third were; all the men in Custer's BATTALION were. The rest of the 7th Cavalry were pinned down on Reno Hill. Most survived.
There was at least one more, but my recollection of it has escaped me. Point is, a program on HISTORY misses these things in just a mere few seconds. How many more miscues are there?
There are good points to the show, of course, but the shortcomings are just too many. More time, by far, was spent describing the minie ball than of the entire Age of Exploration [as I alluded to in the first post of this thread]. I don't think the word "Gettysburg" was used in the entire Civil War segment - well, other than in reference to the Gettysburg Address.
A shame - this could have been good. I fear it will only get worse was as the program approaches the modern era. |
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