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  1. #1

    The Roosevelts: An Intimate History -- Ken Burns, PBS

    I'm not normally one to post about TV shows or plug "must see" movies, media, etc.

    However, I have been watching a terrific documentary about the Roosevelts, which starts from TR's childhood through the FDR presidency. Each part is 2 hours long, ultimately it will be a 7-part 14 hour documentary, but so far not all of them have aired on PBS, (at least I don't think so). It's pretty remarkable for a TV history and makes me wish there was a channel devoted to producing high quality historical documentaries (yep, I am flipping you off, History Channel). I have only finished the first two episodes. I am about to start the third! It's been in heavy rotation on PBS in the evenings, so do yourself a favor and DVR it!

    http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/films/the-roosevelts

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Ken Burns could do an intimate history of the phonebook and I would watch it.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Brooklet, GA
    Quote Originally Posted by theAlaskanBear View Post
    I'm not normally one to post about TV shows or plug "must see" movies, media, etc.

    However, I have been watching a terrific documentary about the Roosevelts, which starts from TR's childhood through the FDR presidency. Each part is 2 hours long, ultimately it will be a 7-part 14 hour documentary, but so far not all of them have aired on PBS, (at least I don't think so). It's pretty remarkable for a TV history and makes me wish there was a channel devoted to producing high quality historical documentaries (yep, I am flipping you off, History Channel). I have only finished the first two episodes. I am about to start the third! It's been in heavy rotation on PBS in the evenings, so do yourself a favor and DVR it!

    http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/films/the-roosevelts
    Best you can hope for on The History Channel is something like... "Stranded! Naked and Hungry in Roosevelt State Park!"

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Quote Originally Posted by jacone21 View Post
    Best you can hope for on The History Channel is something like... "Stranded! Naked and Hungry in Roosevelt State Park!"
    Lend It or Lease It
    Deal or New Deal
    Extreme Makeover: U.S. Financial System Edition

    Pretty sure you just invented the greatest history nerd game ever.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by jacone21 View Post
    Best you can hope for on The History Channel is something like... "Stranded! Naked and Hungry in Roosevelt State Park!"
    Was FDR an Alien! (You laugh, but they are currently running a series exploring the Nazi-alien connection).

    I love Burns' stuff and I watched the Roosevelt series with interest.

    Some lovely photos and wonderful insight into the family relationships, especially the split between the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park branches of the family (with Eleanor as the tenuous connection between the two branches).

    But I did have a problem with some of the perceptions of the two Roosevelt presidents. I thought the way that Teddy was depicted as a gung-ho war lover was unbalanced. He was an aggressive military-minded man, but there was another side that the series ignored -- his innate common sense. I wish they had mentioned that he could have claimed command of the Volunteer Cavalry, but he understood his lack of experience and insisted on swerving under Leonard Wood, an experienced cavalry officer.

    And his conduct in Cuba was brilliant. It's always bugged me the way the "ambush" of Las Gasimaus is depicted. The Rough Riders and the 1st Cavalry and 10th Negro Cavalry (about 900 men combined) were leading the advance from Daquiri Beach to Santiago when encountered over 1,500 veteran Spanish troops in entrenched positions (with two 75 mm Krupp cannon) in the jungle. Even though they were outnumbered almost 2-to-1 and fighting veteran troops armed with better weapons (1892 Mausers with smokeless powder), in a two-hour fight, the Americans maneuvered the Cuban force out of its entrenchments and backwards in headlong retreat. The US forced suffered minimal casualties -- eight killed and 18 wounded.

    It was a splendid tactical performance and TR's wing of the Rough Riders had much to do with the success (although Leonard Wood was actually in command).

    Two days later, the US Army's attack on the Spanish defenses around San Juan Hill were hung up by the regular army's inability to take the fortified village of El Caney. Roosevelt, by now the commander of the Rough Riders (Wood promoted to replace ailing Joe Wheeler as overall commander of all cavalry units), broke the stalemate by ordering the assault on Kettle Hill. Helped by the 10th Negro Cavalry, they cracked the Spanish line and evoked the British Army's official observer to remark: "Magnificent ... but they can't take it." Obviously, they did.

    My point is that Teddy Roosevelt might have been aggressive, but he was always in control. I just think the portrait presented in the series was a bit one-sided.

    As for FDR, new research is emerging that expands his role in shaping America's military strategy in WWII -- often in the face of vociferous opposition from his top military brass -- Marshall and King.

    He was certainly right -- and Marshall (who threatened to resign over the issue) -- to insist on the North African invasion in the fall over '42. And his role in guiding a reluctant American populace into preparing for the war he know was coming is only now being really appreciated. Sept. 1, 1939 to Dec. 7, 1941 was clearly his finest hour.

    I don't think the Burns series did him justice for that contribution.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    St. Louis

    The Bully Pulpit

    Those of you who are interested in this period of history might want to read The Bully Pulpit, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's about TR and Taft and how they used/interacted with the press.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Olympic Fan View Post
    Was FDR an Alien! (You laugh, but they are currently running a series exploring the Nazi-alien connection).

    I love Burns' stuff and I watched the Roosevelt series with interest.

    Some lovely photos and wonderful insight into the family relationships, especially the split between the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park branches of the family (with Eleanor as the tenuous connection between the two branches).

    But I did have a problem with some of the perceptions of the two Roosevelt presidents. I thought the way that Teddy was depicted as a gung-ho war lover was unbalanced. He was an aggressive military-minded man, but there was another side that the series ignored -- his innate common sense. I wish they had mentioned that he could have claimed command of the Volunteer Cavalry, but he understood his lack of experience and insisted on swerving under Leonard Wood, an experienced cavalry officer.

    And his conduct in Cuba was brilliant. It's always bugged me the way the "ambush" of Las Gasimaus is depicted. The Rough Riders and the 1st Cavalry and 10th Negro Cavalry (about 900 men combined) were leading the advance from Daquiri Beach to Santiago when encountered over 1,500 veteran Spanish troops in entrenched positions (with two 75 mm Krupp cannon) in the jungle. Even though they were outnumbered almost 2-to-1 and fighting veteran troops armed with better weapons (1892 Mausers with smokeless powder), in a two-hour fight, the Americans maneuvered the Cuban force out of its entrenchments and backwards in headlong retreat. The US forced suffered minimal casualties -- eight killed and 18 wounded.

    It was a splendid tactical performance and TR's wing of the Rough Riders had much to do with the success (although Leonard Wood was actually in command).

    Two days later, the US Army's attack on the Spanish defenses around San Juan Hill were hung up by the regular army's inability to take the fortified village of El Caney. Roosevelt, by now the commander of the Rough Riders (Wood promoted to replace ailing Joe Wheeler as overall commander of all cavalry units), broke the stalemate by ordering the assault on Kettle Hill. Helped by the 10th Negro Cavalry, they cracked the Spanish line and evoked the British Army's official observer to remark: "Magnificent ... but they can't take it." Obviously, they did.

    My point is that Teddy Roosevelt might have been aggressive, but he was always in control. I just think the portrait presented in the series was a bit one-sided.

    As for FDR, new research is emerging that expands his role in shaping America's military strategy in WWII -- often in the face of vociferous opposition from his top military brass -- Marshall and King.

    He was certainly right -- and Marshall (who threatened to resign over the issue) -- to insist on the North African invasion in the fall over '42. And his role in guiding a reluctant American populace into preparing for the war he know was coming is only now being really appreciated. Sept. 1, 1939 to Dec. 7, 1941 was clearly his finest hour.

    I don't think the Burns series did him justice for that contribution.
    You certainly have valid criticisms. I am only half-way through the series, but its ambitious timeline (100 years) and decision to focus on the personal lives of the characters definitely impacts it's coverage of TR's presidency. I feel like they just scraped the surface. I might quibble with your analysis of Las Guasimas, simply because I always understood it as a rear-guard action by Spanish forces who had no intention of holding ground. Regardless, the criticism is off base, because as you mentioned he wasn't in command and its hardly a "blunder" that could have been avoided by TR. I think they even described him with the word "bloodlust" at one point. It definitely felt forced.

    A better use of the time to show some valid criticism of Roosevelt could have been spent discussing the occupation of the Philippines and it's aftermath. And on a side note, Leonard Wood would make a fascinating subject for a documentary. A Harvard Medical student, between his stints in the American Indian wars, as personal physician to multiple presidents, in the Spanish American war, as Governor of Cuba, in the Philippine occupation, then later as Governor General of the Philippines after losing a presidential nomination, there is a lot to tell. Not to mention his time as General Chief of Staff, implementing the army reforms in advance of WWI, and a rather famous case of brain surgery to remove a tumor in 1910. His brain is on display in the Cushing Center at Yale.

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