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Post by Oss Rae on Apr 6, 2018 9:10:07 GMT -8
This show was made some years ago, but I'm finally watching it on Netflix streaming. Has anyone else seen it? I'm up to the Reagan years. This episode underscores how close Reagan and Gorbachev came to getting rid of all nuclear weapons (and also documents Reagan's reaction to the 1983 TV movie The Day After). It looks like it was a single cabinet member who urged Reagan not to compromise on his space fantasy.
Various episodes are on YouTube, too, but in most cases the images are shrunken down. This one is intact. It's a "prequel" about U.S. imperialism in the late 1890s and WW 1.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 11, 2018 23:00:34 GMT -8
I'm so glad you posted the introductory episode of "The Untold History of the United States," Oss Rae. I missed that one, and it turned out to be the best. Cuba and the Philippines were our original imperial sins at the turn of the last century. Before I got to college, Manifest Destiny and American colonialism were still being taught as fine, natural aspirations in our nation's history. Gore Vidal's series of historical novels that started with "Burr" woke me up about 40 years ago.
I watched most of the other chapters on Showtime several years ago, starting with Oliver Stone's paean to Henry Wallace in the 1940's. They're beautifully edited with excellent footage and photos -- 1890's silent film in this episode! -- great quotations and sound bites, and exquisite music. First class filmmaking.
Hearing Stone's narration, I'm reminded that he's not always a reliable source for history. While he's usually accurate about American policies and atrocities, at the same time Stone downplays the Soviet Union's crimes against humanity and ignores their imperial ambitions. Yes, they've had a lot more reasons to be afraid of us than we have had of them. But Stone doesn't like to dwell on Lenin beating up on Muslims, Stalin starving millions of his people, Khrushchev installing nuclear missiles in Cuba and Brezhnev rolling tanks into Prague when there are so many U.S. crimes to cover every hour. |
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