Alistair Cooke's America
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Alistair Cooke's America is a 13-part television series about the United States and its history, commissioned by the BBC, written and presented by Alistair Cooke and first broadcast in both the United Kingdom and the US in 1973. The producer was Michael Gill, who had the idea for the series and chose the presenter. It was followed by a book of the same title.
It was a great success in both countries and won both a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA. It also resulted in Cooke being invited to address the joint Houses of the United States Congress as part of Congress's bicentennial celebrations. Alistair Cooke said that, of all his work, Alistair Cooke's America was what he was most proud of; it is the result and expression of his long love of America. (Cooke was once asked how long it took him to make the series. "I do not want to be coy," he replied, "but it took 40 years.")
[edit] List of Episodes
- 1. The First Impact: The first programme was a personal memoire of Alistair Cooke's infatuation with the USA and its effect on his life.
- 2. The New Found Land: The second episode followed the lives, settlements and influence of the Spanish in the west and the French in the east of America.
- 3. Home From Home: The third episode looked at the voyagers of the Pilgrim Fathers and other English dissenters and adventurers who settled in America in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- 4. Making a Revolution: The fourth episode looked at the War of Independence and America's struggle to gain independence from Britain.
- 5. Inventing a Nation: The fifth looked at the early stages of America, in particular, how the 13 American colonies were unified after winning independence from the British.
- 6. Gone West: The sixth episode looked at the Pioneers of America and the dispossession of Native Americans.
- 7. A Firebell in the Night: Episode seven took a look at slavery in the Southern States and the causes and effects of the American Civil War.
- 8. Domesticating Wilderness: Episode eight looked at the great push west by the settlers including the Mormons, the founding of Salt Lake City and the crossing of the continent by railroad.
- 9. Money on the Land: Episode nine looked at the rise of business and technology including: Chicago, railroads, Edison, oil, Rockefeller and the moneyed classes.
- 10. The Huddled Masses: The tenth episode looked at the mass immigration to the USA in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- 11. The Promise Fulfilled and the Promise Broken: The eleventh look at prosperity and politics in the 1920s, including the Great Depression
- 12. Arsenal: The penultimate programme looked at the USA as a world military power and the growth of the United Nations.
- 13. The More Abundant Life: Alistair Cooke concluded the series by looking at contemporary America in the early 1970s and how it had diverged from the original aims of the settlers.
