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The American Future - A History - All 4 Episodes

Category: Documentary
Description:
The American Future: A History 1/4~ American Plenty 2008 10 10 BBC2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dygkw 467mg : 59:20.min Simon Schama travels through America to dig deep into the conflicts of its history as a way to understand the country's contemporary political situation. In American Plenty, Simon explores how American optimism about the infinite possibilities of its land and resources is in danger of coming to a grinding halt. Nowhere is it more evident than in the American West, which has always been a symbol of opportunity and freedom. Oil at 4 dollars a gallon may be dominating the headlines, but here it is the lack of water that is an even bigger threat to the American future. The West is in the grip of a years-long drought. America's optimism about its natural resources has always been spiced with clashes over conservation going back to the first man to navigate the Colorado river, John Wesley Powell. American ingenuity made farming on an industrial scale possible in the early years of the 20th century but at the cost of making Oklahoma a dust bowl. The Hoover Dam, a modern American miracle which used to provide essential irrigation for farming and for the new city of Las Vegas, is not able to cope with the demand for water anymore. In 1980, Ronald Reagan's optimism about American plenty defeated Jimmy Carter's campaign for self-restraint. But in the 2008 election, neither candidate can ignore the challenges facing America as it enters an era of limits. The American Future: 2/4 American War 2008 20 17 BBC 2 A History Video Codec Name: XviD 1.0.3 Duration: 59:08.240 File Size: 490,719,232 http://uk-tv-guide.com/pick-of-the-day/17-10-2008/documentary-the-american-future-a-history-by-simon-schama-american-war-this-is-war/ Simon Schama continues his travels through America, against the backdrop of the presidential campaign, to dig deep into the conflicts of its history to understand what is at stake right now. In the second episode, American War, Schama reveals how different the American attitude to war is from what outsiders assume it to be. "The world has got in the habit of thinking of America as the tough-guy empire; trigger-happy cowboys addicted to the rush of military power. But that's not the way America sees itself," he says. Two of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, disagreed about whether America should even have a professional army - a division still evident when Schama visits America's premier military academy at West Point. From the Civil War right through to Mark Twain's denunciation of President Teddy Roosevelt's imperial adventure in the Philippines, American wars have inspired profound debate. And nowhere more so in this election than San Antonio, Texas, nicknamed Military City because of its high population of veterans and serving soldiers, where Simon finds feelings about the war are deeply divided. As with the great war elections of the past, it's a debate which forces America to dig deep and rediscover what it stands for The American Future: 3/4 Fervor 2008 10 24 (BBC2) A History For a potential American president, claiming to have God on your side is pretty persuasive to many American voters. It's a suggestion the Republicans in particular have used to good effect. But for the first time in generations, it's the Democrats who are promoting themselves as the party of God, with their candidate Barack Obama frequently citing his faith as his inspiration. Contrast this with rival Republican John McCain, who has described evangelicals as "agents of intolerance" (but now exploits shamelessly). In the third program of the series, Simon Schama looks at how religion - and particularly the black church - has shaped US politics. This mainly involves him sitting through several Southern church services (looking slightly uncomfortable), but he does get inexplicably excited while reading some ancient documents that reveal early attitudes towards religious freedoms. But then, of course, the hypothesis of this whole series is that America's future is rooted in its past. The American Future: A History, by Simon Schama Highlight BBC2 4/4 - What is an American? Schama's essays in US history are as frustrating as they are brilliant. Tonight he holds forth on the history of American immigration, a troubled subject that he brings alive as only he knows how. Yet the ponderous pace sometimes makes you want to yell, "Get a move on!" With a bit more oomph in the storytelling, this could, you feel, reach a far larger audience. And it deserves to, because his account of race-hatred episodes from the 19th century is eye-opening, reminding us of the horrors endured by Hispanics and Chinese immigrants on their way to becoming accepted as Americans. "Time and again, America's whites have feared the change that immigrants bring," observes Schama, "even though it's immigrant sweat that has made America." And nothing could illustrate that better than his vivid account of the Chinese labourers who built America's railways and their shameful, stomach-turning treatment.
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The American Future: 4/4 - What is an American?

Category: Documentary
Description:
The American Future: A History, by Simon Schama Highlight Friday 31 October 9:00pm - 10:00pm BBC2 4/4 - What is an American? Schama's essays in US history are as frustrating as they are brilliant. Tonight he holds forth on the history of American immigration, a troubled subject that he brings alive as only he knows how. Yet the ponderous pace sometimes makes you want to yell, "Get a move on!" With a bit more oomph in the storytelling, this could, you feel, reach a far larger audience. And it deserves to, because his account of race-hatred episodes from the 19th century is eye-opening, reminding us of the horrors endured by Hispanics and Chinese immigrants on their way to becoming accepted as Americans. "Time and again, America's whites have feared the change that immigrants bring," observes Schama, "even though it's immigrant sweat that has made America." And nothing could illustrate that better than his vivid account of the Chinese labourers who built America's railways and their shameful, stomach-turning treatment. --- File Information --- File Name: The American Future A History s01e04 .thebox.hannibal.avi File Size: 490,672,128 --- Container Information --- Base Type: AVI(.AVI) --- Video Information --- Video Codec Name: XviD 1.0.3 Duration: 58:46.920 frame Width (pixels): 608 frame Height (pixels): 336 Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.000 Display Aspect Ratio: 1.810 frames Per Second: 25.000 Video Bitrate (kbps): 975 --- Audio Information --- Audio Codec: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3 Audio Sample Rate(Hz): 48000 Audio Bitrate(kbps): 128 Audio Channel Count: 2
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ExpandThe american future: 4/4 What is an American? 2008 10 31 (BBC2)