The Men Who Built America [DVD]

“The Men Who Built America” is generally a very good set of miniseries videos. Essentially, it tells an integrated story of how, after the ruins of the Civil War, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Ford (with a little help from Henry Frick, Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, Nikola Tesla, the original Charles Schwab, William Jennings Bryan, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, and Teddy Roosevelt, et al.) built modern America into the world’s greatest economic and technological superpower.Added to the story reenactments are comments from historians H. W. Brands, David Nasaw, Maury Klein., Steven Watts, and Jill Jonnes. In addition, historical “color” frosting comes from such celebrity business people as Mark Cuban, Alan Greenspan, Steve Case, T. Boone Pickens, Carly Fiorina, Jerry Weintraub, Steve Wynn, Richard Parsons, Jack Welch, Donny Deutsch, Ron Perelman, Jim Cramer, and Donald Trump. The ability with 20/20 hindsight to mull over the 2012 strategic insight comments of this second group as to where their reputations have since gone is almost worth the watch, in and of itself!The series segments are as follows: Disc 1 (A New War Beings. Oil Strike. A Rivalry is Born.) Disc 2 (Blood is Spilled. A New Rival Emerges. Owning It All.) Disc 3 (Taking the White House. The New Machine.) Bonus Footage (not seen on TV): From Rich to Richer. The American Dream. Monopoly. Competitive Nature. The Every Man. The Rise of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Traits of a Titan. Carnegie.If “The Men Who Build America” has a problem, it is that it is essentially the collection of programs within the TV miniseries. This means about 20% of the material is back-grounding, stage-setting reintroduction of a previous program’s happenings. All of this makes sense when a program is presented on TV maybe a week after the previous program. However, even lightly retreading old ground soon becomes a bit annoying when watching the programs back to back on a DVD.Bottom-line, I really enjoyed learning about these historical figures in a way that showed their interplay and how each one affected, reacted to, and built upon the success of others, with illuminating sketches of individual character and business strategy. From my own experience in reading about these business titans, this integrated approach is relatively unique and helps put into better perspective how America was built. Highly recommended!Of possible interest: George Washington’s Liberty Key: Mount Vernon’s Bastille Key – the Mystery and Magic of Its Body, Mind, and Soul, a best-seller at Mount Vernon. “Character is Key for Liberty!” andStrategy Pure and Simple: Essential Moves for Winning in Competition and Cooperation

This is a great documentary for learning about the US in the industrial age. I had no idea how ruthless those men could be, but that was how things were done back then. Thank goodness we have antitrust laws now. I recommend.

Shipped quickly. Arrived three days BEFORE the expected arrival date. THANK YOU!***MANY DVD retailers on here take longer than ANY other type of merchandise to ship and the parcels are Frequently delivered LATE. That was NOT the case with this transaction.The DVD is a great way to teach kids about how this Country grew rapidly through the Industrial Revolution. It's interesting, presented well, the scenes (sets and costumes) are period correct, and the actors portrayed the Titans extremely well.I'd seen this series on the History Channel several times, but wanted it to share with my Grandchildren. I think it's well worth the price.

The videos are very well done and interesting. I use the Men Who Built America in my history classes to help the students understand the era and to make the people come alive. Most of the studnets have never heard of people like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, John Rockefeller, etc. These videos help history come alive.

This series of videos was very entertaining and fun to watch. I and my family learned a lot about early american history that we did not know, especially concerning the men involved with this story. It was fun to see how the destiny of these men was intertwined. My only complaint about the DVD series is that it would have been better if they had taken a little extra time to blend together each section without the commercial recap of what had already occurred. Every 8-10 minutes, there is a 2 minute recap of what had previously occurred, presumably after coming back from the commercial break for the TV series. This is not necessary when you have been watching the DVD series from the beginning. I would assume this could have fairly easily been edited out for the DVD, but wasn't. They also filmed some time period scenes from the late 1800's that were shown repeatedly throughout the series. After watching the first 5-6 episodes, some of these scenes can "get old", but this does not detract from the enjoyment of the series. I would have also liked to seen more on Henry Ford. The focus of this series was basically how his life and early start to Ford was affected by the things that Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and Morgan did, but not much focus on how Ford revolutionized the production line. The segment on Ford seemed a little rushed to end the series on time. Definitely worth the purchase. Also, the main title theme "Save My Soul" is very addictive!