Alistair Cooke's America

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 1972^[1]. 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 that sold almost 2m copies. [1]

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

The First Impact: The first programme was a personal memoir of Alistair Cooke's infatuation with the USA--through early contacts as a child and as a visiting fellow after college--and its effect on his life.
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.
Home From Home: The third episode looked at the settlement of America by English dissenters and adventurers in the 16th and 17th centuries from the Jamestown Settlement to the Pilgrim Fathers.
Making a Revolution: The fourth episode looked at the War of Independence--America's struggle to gain independence from Britain.
Inventing a Nation: The fifth looked at the forging of the American nation through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and the great debate between the federal and the centralized American government.
Gone West: The sixth episode looked at the pioneers of America from Daniel Boone to the "Forty Niners", the expansion of America via the Louisiana Purchase, and the dispossession of Native Americans.
A Firebell in the Night: Episode seven looked at slavery and life in the Southern States; and the events, causes and effects of the American Civil War.
Domesticating Wilderness: Episode eight looked at the great push west by the settlers including the Mormons, the crossing of the continent by railroad, the myth of the cowboy, the domestication of the land by settlers local and foreign, and the final conquest of the Native Americans after much warfare.
Money on the Land: Episode nine looked at the rise of business and technology--Chicago, the reaper, Edison, oil, Rockefeller and Carnegie, the moneyed classes--and its effects and cosequences.
The Huddled Masses: The tenth episode looked at the rise and influence of mass immigration to the USA in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the current "melting pot".
The Promise Fulfilled and the Promise Broken: The eleventh episode looks at life, prosperity and politics in the 1920s, leading to the Great Depression and the rise of the New Deal.
Arsenal: Episode twelve looked at the rise of a reluctant USA as a world military power, the growth of the United Nations, and the USA as a nuclear power.
The More Abundant Life: Alistair Cooke concluded the series by looking at contemporary America in the sixties and early 1970s, and how it had diverged from the original aims of the settlers, and its hope for the future.