The general theme of this program is the building of modern America in the postwar years. But the episode skips around to so many different issues that the coverage of each topic remains superficial. The words of the commentators were also lightweight in nature and tended towards a boosterism of American values that eventually became overworked and under-supported.
The opening segment deals with America's substandard roads and infrastructure at the close of World War II. Ike got the nation moving with a massive network of interstate highways. Formerly the white signs of the highway system led motorists through major cities that slowed the drivers down and bottlenecked traffic. The new interstate system bypassed the cities, many of which became obsolete.
But those old cities were now being replaced by suburbia as the American middle class left major cities and flocked to the 'burbs. Levittown houses went up as fast as babies were being born in the post war years: one every sixteen minutes.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenges America to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This was part of his "New Frontier" program, drawing upon America's traditional love affair with the frontier. Finally, in July, 1969, the eagle has landed on the moon!
The Civil Rights Era was described in the program by Colin Powell as "a second Civil War." Under Truman in 1948, the army was de-segregated. But the rest of the nation was still mired in separate but "unequal" living and work conditions. Beginning in 1849, Harriet Tubman was one of the first civil rights activists. Over a century later and led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the civil rights movement in the 1960s is spearheaded by the "March on Washington" with 250,000 in attendance for the "I have a dream speech." The promise of 1776 was back on the agenda!
The program closes with an underdeveloped segment on the Cold War, the arms race, and the prospect of Armageddon. By 1959, America had produced the first intercontinental ballistic missile. McCarthyism was still felt in the nation's repressed climate.
Gen. Tommy Franks closes the program with a stirring tribute to the three "Fs" of America: family, faith, and flag.
The opening segment deals with America's substandard roads and infrastructure at the close of World War II. Ike got the nation moving with a massive network of interstate highways. Formerly the white signs of the highway system led motorists through major cities that slowed the drivers down and bottlenecked traffic. The new interstate system bypassed the cities, many of which became obsolete.
But those old cities were now being replaced by suburbia as the American middle class left major cities and flocked to the 'burbs. Levittown houses went up as fast as babies were being born in the post war years: one every sixteen minutes.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenges America to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This was part of his "New Frontier" program, drawing upon America's traditional love affair with the frontier. Finally, in July, 1969, the eagle has landed on the moon!
The Civil Rights Era was described in the program by Colin Powell as "a second Civil War." Under Truman in 1948, the army was de-segregated. But the rest of the nation was still mired in separate but "unequal" living and work conditions. Beginning in 1849, Harriet Tubman was one of the first civil rights activists. Over a century later and led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the civil rights movement in the 1960s is spearheaded by the "March on Washington" with 250,000 in attendance for the "I have a dream speech." The promise of 1776 was back on the agenda!
The program closes with an underdeveloped segment on the Cold War, the arms race, and the prospect of Armageddon. By 1959, America had produced the first intercontinental ballistic missile. McCarthyism was still felt in the nation's repressed climate.
Gen. Tommy Franks closes the program with a stirring tribute to the three "Fs" of America: family, faith, and flag.
