American Experience: America 1900 (1998) Reviews

The 19th century saw technological, industrial, and cultural advancements in America beyond the imagination. This four-part program documents America in the year 1900 where a series of tragic events would test the richness and optimism symbolic of its time: a deadly explosion in a coal mine in Utah; a devastating hurricane in Texas; two brutal wars overseas; and all year, assassins would plot to murder the president of the United States. It was a year of dichotomy, where inventions and expansion brought material and industrial richness while at the same time, the struggle for racial justice, worker's rights, and a growing immigrant population created shifts in power structures and change in our cultural landscape. From President William McKinley's fight for reelection and the sensation of his running mate Theodore Roosevelt to social campaigns on the environment and public morality, America struggled with its national identity as well as positioning itself as a world power. It was at the turn of the 20th century that America's prosperity and optimism seemed unstoppable. ~ Brooke Hodess, Rovi