Customer Reviews

Simon Schama's The American Future: A History [DVD]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
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This four-part BBC series provides an educational, insightful tour of American history. Simon Schama's detailed TV essays explain much of the history, mystery and contradictions of modern American society.
This is not a lightweight, frothy or frivolous series so don't expect the kind of giggles you get from Stephen Fry's adventures.[ASIN:B001C4QLBA Stephen Fry in America [2008]

Instead, watching The American Future should help you understand how American political and social attitudes have been formed. It's been timed perfectly to coincide with the 08 presidential election, and Schama brings to bear his considerable historical expertise and his personal enthusiasm for the subject matter. The result is compelling and well worth watching more than once. We've been enthralled by it.

Schama follows a theme for each episode and explains the historical context behind current affairs. So we learn how America has been shaped by war (Independence and Civil, long before WW1, 2 and Vietnam), and how the need for water has dictated the development of the west and the engineering feats of the 20th century. In the episode about faith, Schama shows how religion was originally part of American rebellion and how it has come to be part of American conservatism. Finally, Schama tackles the tricky subject of immigration: how a nation of émigrés defines itself.

Each episode uses a fair amount of talking-to-camera segments but the series also uses a lot of archive footage to set the scene and occasionally comedic old movie scenes. Schama also interviews relevant characters; a modern-day preacher; a ditchman from the desert whose job it is to keep the irrigation channels flowing to water the crops; the ex-soldiers who campaign to end the current overseas wars. Overall, the opinions come across as reasonably well balanced although we're in no doubt that Schama is fairly in love with the American ideal... although he's not shy about pointing out how far away from that ideal the American reality lies.

The American Future was obviously designed to be viewed during election year and much of its content reflects the two presidential candidates and their campaigns. As such the series will date very rapidly and it's going to be interesting to watch it again in a year or so and see how the same information can be interpreted with a little hindsight.
Tackling `modern' history and making it relevant to current affairs is a risky business, particularly when the subject is a controversial one. Schama's series is well worth watching although it doesn't rank alongside the likes of Civilisation or Ascent of Man (but will any TV series ever be that brave again?).

The American Future educates and entertains and offers plenty of material to mull over during the days after watching. It's the very opposite of soundbite TV; not particularly flashy and devoid of snappy graphics. But packed with information and understanding.
Recommended to buy for repeated viewing.
9/10

Schama once again comes up with the goods: a work of startling erudition and breadth of scope - in spite of the title, the author considers the American past and how it relates to its prospects for the future (both in the country itself and the wider world). A most delightful bitesize yet in-depth guide to the main landmarks in American history.

I shall now be reading the book, which I had not intended to do, owing to a lack of time (not of inclination).

Excellent series of programmes, thoroughly recommended.

Schama explains serious subject - water shortages, religion, war and immigration - in a way that is at once informed and intelligent but also easy to understand and to follow. If, like me, you were disappointed by shallow, rushed nature of the "Stephen Fry in America" series that aired in the UK around the same time ("Just look at this really cute roadside cafe here in Idaho. OK, on to Oregon now."), this series delivers everything Fry's didn't.

Best of all is the cinematography: the whole thing is beautifully shot. It's certainly not a travelogue documentary but you could turn the sound off and still get something out of this.

For anyone interested in America, this is a wonderful chronology leading up to and culminating in the Obama presidential campaign. Excellently researched and presented - I'll watch it again and again.

This series saw Historian Simon Schama travelling through America looking at conflicts and issues that have affected the nation in its history and how lessons can be learned to deal with similar issues now.

The series was filmed in 2007 and so was set against the backdrop of the 2008 presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain.

A very interesting series and beautiful cinematography make this a very watchable set of doumentaries.

The episodes are as follows:

Episode 1 - American Plenty: Looking at America's dependence on its land and resources and how this is changing in the 21st century.
Episode 2 - American War: A look at how different the US attitude to war is from what outsiders assume it to be.
Episode 3 - American Fervour: How faith has shaped American political life and influenced pivotal hsitorical moments such as Civil Rights.
Episode 4 - What is an American?: Looks into the bitter conflict over immigration in America.

Fundamentally, it is enjoyable to watch; imbuing a historical documentary with vitality through colourful biographical accounts, e.g. Montgomery C. Meigs. Furthermore the style focuses on particular people and situations, utilising them as microcosms to highlight larger and more general socio-economic patterns and occurences.

On the other hand, there is only 4 hours of footage. Indeed despite a whole episode focusing on American Wars and American views on war , virtually no attention was given to the wars of the 20th Century: indeed there was no mention on the World Wars, Vietnam.

To conclude, it is an illuminating and interesting overview of American History also extapolating on some of the future problems for America in the 21st Century. However, it is limited by a lack of time which impinges upon the quantity of American history which is covered. Therefore I believe it was worth watching, but arguably Schama's books may be substantial.

I appreciate Schama's presentation of the complex issues covered in his series of recent American history. He is a very accomplished broadcaster as well as being a historian of stature.

very interesting, but old hat now that the presidential election is finished. The chapter about the building of American indentity and country doesn't even once mention the Native Americans and the genocide.