Customer Reviews

American Experience: America 1900

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This is a great teaching tool. History becomes alive. It begins by explaining what was the general mood of the country and why. In light of the events which followed for that year, it was insightful.

As the twentieth century arrived, the United States was already the most powerful nation on Earth and was beginning to project its' power across the globe. The last of the domestic Indian "wars" were over and America had recently defeated Spain and was now administering the former Spanish colonies of Cuba and the Philippines. It was a time of very rapid change, in fact the pace of change was arguably greater then than it was when the twenty first century arrived.
As one commentator so correctly states, nearly all of the major inventions that changed the twentieth century had just been invented, and what occurred during the twentieth century were engineering improvements and expanded use. Indoor plumbing, automobiles, moving pictures, mass transportation, phonograph records, telephones, electricity in the home, all forms of electric appliances and radio were just some of the new things that were beginning to be introduced. Not everyone had them yet, but nearly everyone had heard of them and knew that more and more people were using the new devices.
From the tape, you see the people of a nation strong, proud and confident, but also afflicted with a degree of fear and paranoia. These were completely new things, not just improvements on the old. The country had conquered all of the North American continent that it could, and so it was now looking beyond the coasts to lands thousands of miles away.
The American experience in Vietnam is still fresh in the public consciousness, but few know that a colonial war just as vicious was fought in Asia as the twentieth century dawned. The producers of this tape are to be commended for the inclusion of the gory details of what took place in that war. Some very brutal actions were taken by the American troops in fighting the Philippine insurrection. One point made is that all 1,000 inhabitants of one village were executed in retaliation for the killing of one American soldier. The American public agonized over what happened at My Lai in Vietnam, and yet the numbers killed at My Lai is dwarfed by many actions that took place in the Philippines. The derogatory term "gook" was also coined at that time to refer to Asians in general and the Filipinos in particular.
Many of the great social tensions that exploded so violently in the twentieth century were starting to develop and are described in the tape. As industrialization continues and the owners start amassing great, unprecedented fortunes, the workers begin to organize. To some extent, all professional groups are beginning to form unions, but the one given the most attention is the coal miners. Forced to work at dangerous jobs for very low pay, nearly 100,000 miners successfully strike for higher pay and better conditions. Their unprecedented and inevitable success was only the beginning of what was to become a great struggle for recognition and social protection.
The second great social tension was the growing plight of blacks. In 1898, the Supreme Court handed down the Plesy vs. Ferguson decision, which upheld the "separate but equal" concept of racial segregation. This was a license for the Jim Crow laws of enforced segregation, which kept blacks in inferior positions for over a half-century. The opinions of Booker T. Washington, who favored the approach of education and economic uplifting, and that of W. E. B. Dubois, who favored agitation for the right to vote are examined and contrasted. Unfortunately, no synthesis is done, as both men were right. Only the combination of economic improvement and the right to vote could lead to blacks attaining their full rights as citizens.
Like so many of the American Experience videos, this one is very well done. From the hindsight of over 100 years, we can see the optimism of a country that is powerful and growing even stronger. But we also see hints of fear and uncertainty, as tremendous change is taking place. From that perspective, nothing has really changed in this country in the century we just completed.

There is not too much to say about this video. It is the best, by far, living memory (for those over 101 years and now for us) of an innocent and dark period. I bought and saw this at least 2 years ago (also bought the must-have companion volume by Judy Crichton which is of the same excellent calibre), yet its images are burnt into my consciousness. The snow on New Year's eve; the kids sledding and looking for all the world like nothing could go wrong in this coming century of all modern things; immigrants with hope on their faces for a new life; McKinley shaking thousands of hands at the White House; he, once a dashing Civil War hero and his wife, once a beauty now with epilepsy, sharing a loving marriage of 30 years; brutal strikes and mine explosions leaving hundreds dead; the Boxer rebellion in China; the horrific Galveston flood, on par with death as the events of our 9-11; but through it all innocence, optimism, rising prosperity. Then, in 1901, McKinley assassinated, his almost Shakespearean words on being shot: "My wife, be careful...how you tell her -- oh be careful." And then the call to TR, typically up on a mountaintop, to take the reins, which he did magnificently. The video is superb technically for the era, the direction, editing and pacing electric. McCullough narrating: need I say more? An absolute must-see.

PBS has done it again! If you loved watching any Ken Burns documentary (i.e. Civil War, Baseball, etc.) you will love 1900! Although not a Burns' production, this documentary mirrors his style of filmmaking, A MUST-SEE FOR ANY AMERICAN HISTORY BUFF! This film is a detailed, chronological sequence of events covering a truly watershed year as America entered the 20th century as a world power. Stunning photography, remarkable archival film and photos, especially covering the Presidential campaign of 1900. Even casual American History viewers will marvel at this production. Better than any rental, this one needs to be owned!

This American Experience was as good as the first time I saw it on PBS. Excellent overview of that period.

I would like to note that as PBS spent public money on this thing, both donations and tax dollars, that it is infuriating when they spend the money on the presentation of wrong information.
They have an historian, Walter LaFeber (a guy at Cornell, good grief!), who states that the US wanted the Philippine islands in order to project US business into China. He makes no mention of the strategic situation, which should be obvious to anyone who looks at a map and remembers the situation in 1899-1900. If the US had left the Philippines in 1899, the islands would have been ripe for a quick takeover by Japan, China, France (whose Indochina colony was right across the water). LaFeber too quickly dismisses the notion that McKinley decided for the US to stay in the Philippines for as long as it took to inculturate them in Democracy and Free Trade (two of the essentials in Michael Mandelbaum's trio of essentials, with the US providing the islands with the third, security).
Later, LaFeber makes the erroneous claim that the Spanish-American War was the USA's first conflict outside of the Western Hemisphere; it was not, that was the Tripolitan War in the early 1800s.
LaFeber also makes a big deal, in what is not much more than a moot point, in McKinley ordering US forces into China to rescue Americans from captivity by the Boxers. He states this is the first time a US president had done this without consulting with Congress. Was Congress even in session when this was done? No mention by him or in the film. Congress was not in session in the Spring of 1861 when Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, and he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a policy statement bound to war strategy, as an executive order.
Somehow, I think the impending harm of Americans qualifies as the type of decision described above.
There also is no mention in this film of McKinley's pronouncement of an "Open Door" policy with regard to western nations trading with China. No mention at all, of a key policy proposal, made in the interests of fair play by President McKinley. Why is that?
Throughout, they make a big deal out of the growing appearance of light bulbs, phonograph record players, movies. But they do not mention, not even once, the guy who invented these things, Thomas Edison. They talk long and hard about a labor union leader, Marshall, but captains of industry, inventors and the like are kept invisible or in the back seat. They are only mentioned when someone is apparently needed to support a point that seems to fit a historical revisionists/political thrust, as when Andrew Carnegie is cited for being "anti-imperialist" and opposed to the conflict in the Philippines with the insurrectionaries there.
At the end, the narrator makes the claim that America in 1900 was "the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth." Well, in 1900 the first claim is debatable, the last is absurdly fallacious. If "powerful" refers to military power, than the United States had at least two world powers ranked ahead of it in 1900, Great Britain and Germany of the Second Reich. France of the Third Republic may have been a close fourth, perhaps even in a tie for third with the USA. But PBS producers, particularly those who contribute programs to this series, American Experience, seem to love to indulge in this particular act of hyperbole, as the same claim "most powerful nation on earth" was made for the USA of 1890 in the documentary The Way West.
Can someone just please get them to cut the B.S. and check their facts?

This is a fascinating profile of America at the turn of the last century--comprehensive and full of rare footage.

The documentary is exceptional. The combination of the background music with the superb narration brings 1900 to life. A superb way to learn about an era long gone.