four part series about how John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan changed America. recorded episode one last night and it really looks good
episode one repeats Saturday Oct 20th. also on again next Tuesday Oct 23rd followed by episode two
web page >>> https://www.history.com/shows/men-who-built-america (copy & paste)
I think episode 2 about the rise of Andrew Carnegie and the American steel industry could have probably been a 90 minute show. every time they came out of commercial, they spent time re-hashing what had already taken place. the labor problems caused by Henry Clay Frick's "worker pushing", which came to a head with the strike at the Homestead Works, in Pittsburgh was good labor history. makes true the statement that "a union is a monster that management creates".
the Pinkertons were (and still are) notorious management goons that not only murdered the Homestead Steel worker but also coal miners trying to organize. (ref: the movie Matewan (1987) >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matewan)
episode 3 sounds like it will not only be about the rise of J P Morgan in finance but also about Thomas Edison vs George Westinghouse in the "War of the Currents". hopefully it won't "drag" as much episode 2
even for it's faults in episode 2, the series is STILL a great history of 19th and early 20th century American business. 
H-L please don't bring your political bullshit into this thread. that's a "parsed quote" and anyone with half a brain knows it. it's biggest LIE in the whole damn campaigne
the entire quote was " Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen"
and btw, that comment was about government money paying for infrastructure that EVERYONE uses and ALLOWS businesses to MOVE their PRODUCTS to MARKET like the interstate highway system in the 1950 under a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. private contractors did the work BUT it was paid for with tax dollars. 
H-L please don't bring your political bullshit into this thread. that's a "parsed quote" and anyone with half a brain knows it. it's biggest LIE in the whole damn campaigne
the entire quote was " Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen"
and btw, that comment was about government money paying for infrastructure that EVERYONE uses and ALLOWS businesses to MOVE their PRODUCTS to MARKET like the interstate highway system in the 1950 under a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. private contractors did the work BUT it was paid for with tax dollars.
Episode 3 about J P Morgan was pretty interesting. I knew he was involved with bankrolling Thomas Edison BUT didn't know he forced Edison out of General Electric. didn't realise that Nikola Tesla once worked for Edison. I DID know that he got SCREWED financially when he gave up his alternating current patents while working for George Westinghouse
looking forward to Episode 4 with Teddy Roosevelt vs John D. Rockefeller.
Nikola Tesla is probably the most under-rated scientist, physicist and engineer of the 20th century. his list of inventions goes well beyond the commercial development of alternating current.
the closest modern "genius who got screwed" I can compare Tesla to is Gary Kildall the original developer of the CP/M compuer operating program which Bill Gates bought for a $75,000 one time payment and relabled MS-DOS. Gates became the richist man on the world and Kindall died at age 52 a bitter alcoholic.
Wikipage >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
watched episode 4 and it was interesting that at one time the group "A.L.A.M" (the Association of Licensed Automobile
Manufacturers) had a patient on automobile manufacturing. they also said that Standard Oil was split into 34 different companies. I though it was 6 with the Standard Oils of Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey and California with Esso and Mobil being Standard's international operations.
IF you missed any of the episodes, all four repeat on Thursday November 15th
not to offend BUT perhaps you should record them to DVD and give them to your High School History teacher? he or she obviously didn't cover US history very well IF you have never heard of at LEAST Rockefeller, Ford or Edison 
just finished watching Henry Ford on the PBS series American Experience. great man BUT he definately had his flaws. he was virally anti semitic and once published a paper titled "The International person: The World's Problem" and treated his only son Edsel like garbage while he was alive. he WAS, however, an early industrialist who didn't exploit his labor and was the first to pay a living wage knowing that they would then be able to buy his cars and make him even MORE profit.
it's available online @ https://video.pbs.org/video/2329934360 
not to offend BUT perhaps you should record them to DVD and give them to your High School History teacher? he or she obviously didn't cover US history very well IF you have never heard of at LEAST Rockefeller, Ford or Edison
No kidding! Names like Vanderbilt (i.e. the university), Ford (i.e. the automobile), Edison (man had thousands of patents), and JP Morgan (i.e. still half the financial institutions today hold his name or a part thereof) have to be known just by living. I loved this series too and I have watched each part more than once. I loved how they interwove the stories together (meaning everying is connected). Makes me wonder if the reason I say FRICK instread of F U C K is due to Henry Frick! I know that is not the case but I am certain most people who ran into Henry Frick in a non social setting were saying Oh FRICK!
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