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Men Who Built America

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stowfan

Assistant Coach
A new series on the History Chanel, that I found highly enjoyable. They have covered Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Frick so far. Comparing the show to what Wikipedia had to say, it appears that 90% of the info matches up.
 
I am really enjoying the series so far, and it seems fairly true to what I've found from other sources as I look up stuff. They're taking some liberties to condense the material and help it flow better as a story, but it doesn't seem to be stuff that would skew what you "learn" much at all. It really intrigues me because even though I knew about the major players individually on a general level, I never knew how connected a lot of these people were to each other, and to the industrial direction of our country.
 
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I've watched the first two and enjoyed them so far.

It's a good story, bu I do have some gripes though...

First, it's very much overdramatized, which is par for the course for the History Channel. Take for instance the gun battle where the Pinkertons were brought in to crush the strike at Carnegie Steel. They made it look like a fucking Civil War battle - guys getting shot in the chest all over the place, and then the voice over says eight people died.

I also take exception with the general thesis and title... The Men Who Built America... They really haven't talked about much that these great men actually built. Vanderbilt presumably had a hand in building the country's railroads, but they gloss over that and talk more about the stock he bought and sold. Carnegie oversaw the building of a bridge and was the benefactor for the music hall that bears his name, but those are about the only things they've talked about being built in this miniseries. The protagonists have destroyed or shut down more things than they've built in this story so far... bridges, railroads, factories, dams, entire towns, each other...

Also, I could do without the cut-ins with opinions from guys like Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, Donny Deutsch, Jim Cramer, etc. The story is good enough without them and I don't need to hear them flatter themselves by trying to relate what they've done to the likes of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc.
 
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jlb1705;2241878; said:
I also take exception with the general thesis and title... The Men Who Built America... They really haven't talked about much that these great men actually built. Vanderbilt presumably had a hand in building the country's railroads, but they gloss over that and talk more about the stock he bought and sold. Carnegie oversaw the building of a bridge and was the benefactor for the music hall that bears his name, but those are about the only things they've talked about being built in this miniseries. The protagonists have destroyed or shut down more things than they've built in this story so far... bridges, railroads, factories, dams, entire towns, each other..
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"The Men Who Led manufacturing innovation and provided the materials and energy that led to the transformation of the United States from an agricultural to industrial Society and global center of Finance..."

....Is a little wordy
 
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jlb1705;2241878; said:
I've watched the first two and enjoyed them so far.

It's a good story, bu I do have some gripes though...

First, it's very much overdramatized, which is par for the course for the History Channel. Take for instance the gun battle where the Pinkertons were brought in to crush the strike at Carnegie Steel. They made it look like a fucking Civil War battle - guys getting shot in the chest all over the place, and then the voice over says eight people died.

I also take exception with the general thesis and title... The Men Who Built America... They really haven't talked about much that these great men actually built. Vanderbilt presumably had a hand in building the country's railroads, but they gloss over that and talk more about the stock he bought and sold. Carnegie oversaw the building of a bridge and was the benefactor for the music hall that bears his name, but those are about the only things they've talked about being built in this miniseries. The protagonists have destroyed or shut down more things than they've built in this story so far... bridges, railroads, factories, dams, entire towns, each other...

Also, I could do without the cut-ins with opinions from guys like Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, Donny Deutsch, Jim Cramer, etc. The story is good enough without them and I don't need to hear them flatter themselves by trying to relate what they've done to the likes of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc.
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Other than the over dramatized Pinkerton scenes, I would have to completely disagree. As far as the cut ins from Trump and Cuban, I had my son watch the programs with me, my advice was, don't see what they accomplished, but see how they thought, and positioned themselves. I enjoy the insight from today's business moguls commenting on the actions of the men who grew to be the wealthiest in American History.
 
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DubCoffman62;2241946; said:
I've not watched it but I heard a few rumbles on FB that it lacks diversity.
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Do these facebook folks feel that the black Robber Barons of the gilded age are getting less airtime than they should, or something?
 
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AKAK;2241948; said:
Do these facebook folks feel that the black Robber Barons of the gilded age are getting less airtime than they should, or something?
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My cousin, she grew up in the SF bay area, she's kind of loony. She won't let her kids watch anything Disney because she says they're racists. Anything having to do with white male heterosexual Christians draws her ire.
 
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