America: The Story of Us

This is a Cliff notes version of American history. Initially visually engaging, as it moves into the second disc, they keep reusing their favorite re-enactments of Civil and Revolutionary war and many other CGI effects that they were obviously very proud of. The repetition started to really drive me nuts. I did enjoy seeing actual footage of things when they got into the 1930s, but then they kept inserting the reenactment footage, and it was maddening.

I was sorely disappointed with this highly touted History Channel offering. At first, I was disturbed mainly by reenactments which were too often grossly inaccurate, but as the series began to cover eras and events that I was more familiar with, it became apparent that the narrative was also misleading. (There are too many incidents to relate, but was Lincoln REALLY "best known," prior to his presidential election, for loosing two bids for the Senate? What a misrepresentation of his political life--including two years in Congress--let alone his reputation as a public speaker.) Some "talking heads" had an aura of authority to speak on the events being covered, but too many were simply "celebrities" with apparently no expertise, and sometimes, little relevance to the current topic. One has to wonder why certain events were chosen to depict an era or turning point in the Nation's history for any reason other than their sensationalist value.

This is History for those who can only tolerate short snippets and catchy graphics. Worse than being over simplified, too much is simply misleading in the way it is presented. Alas, this is pretty much what the "New" History Channel produces now. It is sensationalism over substance; entertainment over education. Such a shame...

From the narrator mispronouncing names like Powhatan and Antietam to repeating well-refuted legends such as buckets of blood and human flesh at the Donner Party campsite, I spotted one factual error after another in this series. The show even goes so far as to speculate that modern day computers are based on 19th century textile machine "technology" but states it as if it's fact. Add to that the annoying "shaky cam" effects during action scenes and flashing camera cuts and it all adds up to colossal disappointment which outweighs anything good the series might have to offer.

I was pleased to see some attention given to the presence and contributions of free blacks early in our nation's history. Native Americans were also presented in a more even-handed manner than I've seen in other historic shows. Some of the special effects, such as the computer simulations of the growth of cities, were well done. Other special effects done in the manner of "CSI" were unnecessary and seemed out of place.

The commentators were a mish-mash of celebrities and "experts" with only a handful of them adding any kind of useful or factual insights. Again, so much of the information was incorrect or slanted to support certain modern day perspectives that it was difficult to know what was credible and what wasn't which, in my humble opinion, makes this a pretty useless history show.

My 14-year-old son, wife, and I watched the entire series. My son, after a less-than-interesting year of American history in school, was not only interested, but excited about watching every new episode. There were a great many details about American history which are often glazed over in textbooks. I would not call this series an overview of American history, nor do I think it really attempts to become that...rather, it does a fine job of pinpointing some rather important, lesser-known events that greatly affected the direction of our country.

The computer animations, at times, were poor...though I've seen blockbuster movies pushing the limits and doing little better. The side conversations and interviews with modern celebrities were interesting...at times very relevant...they were always brief, however, so even when some seemed a bit pointless, they were not really all that intrusive.

If you have the chance to view this series in its entirety, and you are not an American history expert, I am certain you will learn a great deal in every episode. This series cannot be expected to be a standalone summary of American history, but it really is a great supplement to what you might already know and does a good job of actually avoiding hitting those topics which are usually taught in excruciation detail in a class setting (eg. Civil War battles).

Update 1 year later: My son is completely interested in history class, and the topic of history, in general. He is not considering any career in the field, but thoroughly enjoys discussing detailed points of the topic with peers and adults. I fully attribute the spark of his interest in this topic to this mini-series.

I've watched this series once and currently watching it again, but just curious why some wars and some things were left out that were part of our history.