Reply To: History Channel: The Men who built America

#19397

I watched almost all of it; I skipped the last one.

It isn’t uniformly bad. But it does have the usual slant.

It’s portrayal of the Homestead Strike, both the run-up to the Strike and the “battle for the plant,” was rubbish – tendentious to the point of mendacity, claiming Carnegie & Frick refused to negotiate was an outright falsehood (they had successfully concluded negotiations with all but one union before the strike, and did have an offer on the table for the final union) and their portrayal confrontation between the Strikers and the Pinkertons absolute fantasy. I can only guess that they consulted with the most extreme “labour” “historian” they could find, and printed the legend.

It was after that – that was the bridge too far for me, I decided I wouldn’t watch the next episode. Even PBS did better and I expect almost nothing from them when it comes to portraying labor disputes.

But, hey – at least it isn’t “Ancient Aliens.”