User Reviews

Came across the show while flicking through the channels one evening. Caught it half way thorough the second episode and was instantly interested. Decided quickly to find the On-demand channel for the History Channel so that I could start from the beginning. Watched the first and second episode in one swoop. Couldn't wait for next episode.

I thought the show was great. I was not born in USA, so to me the show was immensely educational. Also, liked the way the show was constructed. Halfway between a documentary and a film.

Many interesting and surprising facts about these "robber barons" - who they were, where they came from, how they made it and what made them tick. The most interesting thing was how these men were linked to each other through coincidental business deals. On another level the show explained the immense strength that America gained internationally through the tenacity and ambition of these men - without taking away from the individual aspect of the men themselves.

Historically accurate, astute and shows the entrepreneurial spirit! By mixing it with drama, history and interviews this mini-series brought this exciting time to life! Reading about the exploits of these greats does not have the same effect as seeing them come to life! The only problem is the series should have been longer. There are many facets of the lives of these great men that could have been shown. Not only their successes, but also their failures. I know that it covers a certain time in history, but some more of Ford and the changing of the guard, as it was, would have been nice. One request to History Chanel: Bring more historic events/ times to life as this! Superb!

The names we have come to take for granted, directly and indirectly still present in our lives. Their legacies which have actually influenced the way how we look at the world, the way we live, and how we look at money and influence. There is a reason why the 20th century is also called the 'American Century'. But how did the United States become the superpower as we know it?

The documentary miniseries is divided into the five men who would come to form the backbone of the miniseries spanning from the end of the American Civil War to the First World War: Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford. Men of varying backgrounds, but all being driven to make a mark for themselves, even when there are times the odds want to stack against them. But there are also the people who had shaped their lives, believed in them and in direct competition and conflict with them.

The lives the five men featured are being told through the medium of dramatisation, narration, and told from the viewpoints of historians, biographers, prominent figures from politics and the world of business and even a Rockefeller descendant as well. The combination of all these along with the news clippings and footages of its time help to ensure that the documentary miniseries come alive on its own, like as if we are also bearing eyewitness to the pivotal moments of the lives the five men had led whether in good times or bad as how the men saw it themselves. The viewpoints of those who spoke about the men who did the things they did which coincide with the social and political attitudes of the day, complementing with its current relevance and the lessons one can take away from, ensure that the legacies the five men had left behind long after they were gone, are actually still with us even till this day. Each time we want to think that it is only happening in recent times, it challenges the very notion of it and making us wonder if we had seen it all before. The wealth gap, the ruthlessness of business people and the lengths they go to achieve what they want…it has always been with us.

The stunning imagery and the outfits which represent the eras the five men live in help to reinforce of the viewer living in their moment, making us either want to root for them or not, depending on whether whatever they had done correspond or contradict with what we thought we have always know about the world we live in and what we have come to believe. The marvels of science and engineering, complementing with what the five men had done to make it happen. Then there is also the political aspects of their actions, which goes into the ethical realm.

Whether we want to agree or disagree with the way they did things which are directly and indirectly of their own making and how it has affected us ever since, one cannot dispute that they have all done it in the manner they have felt able to make them one step ahead of everyone else. Like the final words in the documentary miniseries from one of those invited to talk about what the men had done, 'How big do you want to dream, and how hard do you want to work?'. Love them or hate them for what they did when they were alive and the legacies they left behind in the form of charities, educational institutions, companies in current existence in the world today which were once in their control or still in their name…it actually forms part of the many strands in the history of American capitalism in itself.

Whether the interest is in American history in the realms of economics, with both of politics and science to an extent or just wanting to know and/or understand why some things happening the way they do economically while trying to make sense of the current economic times we are currently living in at the same time, this documentary miniseries is one to get the viewer interested. It may or may not help to answer everything the viewer want to know, but it will try to make sense in some aspects of it. It can get gripping to the extent that one can forget counting out the people who are playing especially the five men, the five major players featured in the miniseries are all actually real people after all.

Overall I found this to be an entertaining look at the history of the robber barons and how the US economy (and in the long run the world economy) evolved during the last half of the 19th century.

The mix of interviews and commentary with actors portraying the historical figures was effective.

I did have a minor problem with some of the historical errors. For example in one scene they show the magnates viewing a film of William Jennings Bryan and the commentary is to the effect that he is "certain to be the Democratic nominee.

In fact there was no real front runner in 1896 and Bryan emerged as something of a surprise nominee following his famous Cross of Gold Speech But overall an entertaining series

I have a history degree. My favorite period is the Gilded Age/Progressive Era, and these men fell into that category. Too bad there are no women.

Slams: just a small part of the backlash against these "great"

men is shown. There were strikes and depressions. Some of those have been covered. These super rich men "ate cake" (named after a famous woman) while their employees starved or were forced to work ungodly schedules in the man-killing factories.

The Johnstown flood show depicted a lot of devastation and human heartbreak. Meanwhile, the biggies just went on partying.

I wondered why the Andrew Carnegie name on lots of our libraries. Turns out he was trying to assuage all his cruelty against society, e.g. his "robber-baron-ness".

I do think the actor who played Andrew is very handsome, and the one who portrayed JP Morgan is fairly good looking also. Vanderbilt looked kind of gross. Frick was the incarnate monster. I am glad the guy beat him up. Too bad Frick did not meet his maker.

Morgan Sr. was an old scrooge, but posthumously proved to be correct in his financial predictions. He said Pierpoint was pretty dumb to back electric light.

Westinghouse was depicted as a moron. Edison IRL was known for some shady deals, one of which was trying to get credit for the invention of the telephone away from Alexander Graham Bell.

Edison was also friends with Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford. Will that be covered her? Just saw a GE commercial on TV last night, remembering in this show how Morgan got Edison to give up his name in favor of General Electric Company.

This series is more about the financiers than the famous inventors. It takes money to fund people's imaginings and wildest dreams. Sometimes the dream financing is a true bust, but without dreamers where would we be today? Too bad the dreamers and financiers were not always the same person.

Turns out the Gilded Age means a layer of fake gold on the outside, masking nothingness on the inside. Supposedly these great men came from nowhere, determined to make it in the great nation of capitalism and post-Civil War optimism. Were they educated? When the money was pulled out from under them, they tended to collapse.

President of the United States is an honorary title! If that is the case, who really runs the country? In an area where lines are no longer been drawn between fact and fiction,this show proved rather enlightening: This resonates hugely with me just a few years after Wall Street wrecked the US economy and was rewarded for that with taxpayers bail out money. If the president has no power, I will then speculate that the bankers do. I had studied the industrial revolution back in HS but this seemed a lot like the course they should have thought. As someone points out, there was no woman in the piece and the whole slavery drama seemed such a distant reality one had to to wonder if the slave trade had any impact in the making of the America I have come to know. If there is any element of fact in all of this, much of the conspiracy theories I have swallowed since Sept 11 2001 are founded. The rich and powerful are definitely above the law and democracy, in indeed so very overrated. The capital rules!