America: The Story of US

 

2 Days to go..for July 4th -

Independence Day is coming this Wednesday.

Most US, State and Local Governments, Banks and US

Postal traditionally close on Holiday.  We honor

our Birth of Independence Day since July 4, 1776.

How age is America?  236 is age of our country.

This is my favorite movie is calling “America:

The Story of US”.  It addresses a six-part,

12-Hour documentary television miniseries that

premiered on April 25, 2010, on History.

Produced by Nutopia, the program depicts over

400 years of America history (with emphasis on

the creation, trials and effects of new technologies

by Americans on America’s history and by

implication, the world) spanning from the successful

English settlement of Jamestown on May 14, 1607,

through to the present day.

Episodes

1. “Rebels”  From Jamestown to Plymouth, early

settlers fight for survival. Tobacco sows the

seeds of opportunity; the north becomes a powerhouse

of trade.  Tension, taxation, and resistance causes

the American colonists to begin doing what many

consider impossible: to successfully rebel against

the British Empire.

2.  “Revolution”  George Washington’s army is near

defeat, but new weapons and battle tactics turn the

tide.  The colonies declare independence form the

British Empire.  Forged through revolution, a new

nation is born.

3.  “Westward”  Trailblazing pioneers set out to

conquer the west, but find the land already

claimed.  Wagon trains meet hardship on the road

to California’s gold.  The steamboat ushers in

a new era of commerce, industry, and unprecedented

wealth.

4.  “Division”  Commerce and industry thrive across

the new nation, now one of the wealthiest in the

world.  The Erie Canal brings big risk and bigger

reward.  In the South, cotton is king but slavery

fuels a growing divide.  Violence flares across the

territories and abolitionists make a stand from

freedom.  The election of Abraham Lincoln is

harbinger of war.

5.  “Civil War”  The American Civil War rages.

The formidable Confederate army cannot match the

Union’s mastery of technology; railroads, supply

lines and the telegraph become new weapons in modern

war.

6.  “Heartland”  The Transcontinental Railroad

unties the nation and transforms the American

Heartland.  Native American civilizations decline

as farmers settle the continent.  Cattle replace

wild buffalo as king of the Great Plains.

The cowboy becomes a new American icon.

7.  “Cities”  Americans conquer a new frontier:

the modern city, with Andrew Carnegie’s empire of

steel as its backbone.  Skyscrapers and the Statue

of Liberty are symbols of the American Dream for

millions of immigrants. Urban life introduces a

new breed of social ills, causing several bold

individuals to make a stand.

8.  “Boom” America strikes oil and the boom time

begins.  Henry Ford brings the motorcar to the

masses and the nation hits the road.  Massive

engineering projects modernize the American West.

Intended to cure vice, Prohibition fuels the growth

of organized crime in burgeoning cities.

9.  “Bust”  Boom turns to bust when the stock market

crashes.  The Great Depression and Dust Bowl blanket

the nation in darkness.  President Franklin D.

Roosevelt’s New Deal signals recovery, while boxer

Joe Louis overcomes racial disputes to help bring

America’s pride back.

10.  “World War II”  The attack of Pearl Harbor

brings America into World War II.  The war effort

revitalizes the nation’s economy. 

American innovation and manufacturing might

invigorate the Allies in Europe and in the Pacific,

nuclear weapons help end the war.

11.  “Superpower”  America becomes a global

superpower; technology fuels a boom in the

economy and the population.  American pioneers

conquer new frontiers, from the jet age to the

space age, and run headlong into a new threat:

Communism.

12.  “Millennium” In 2001, the September 11 attacks

fuel the War on Terror and America continues its

growing journey towards the future, whatever it may

be.