Empires of Industry - Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel (History Channel)
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DVD details
Artist: Artist Not ProvidedBrand: A and E Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 50 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-12-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E Home Video
Product features:
- Modern America is built on a skeleton of steel. And without Andrew Carnegie, that skeleton may well have taken a different form. Before Carnegie, steel was a local affair, with small ironworks like the ones that survive in Saugus, Massachusetts and Hopewell, Pennsylvania supplying the demands of the surrounding areas. ANDREW CARNEGIE AND THE AGE OF STEEL visits these historic sites, then travel
DVD Reviews of Empires of Industry - Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel (History Channel)
DVD Review: Steel Yorself for a Boring Ride
Summary: 2 Stars
Despite its title this video is not about either the Age of Steel or Andrew Carnegie. It is instead intended to be a quick and breezy romp through the history of a major American industry. Because it aims to entertain rather than educate, it does neither successfully. If (like me) you bought this for use in the classroom, be warned: it is a powerful soporific! It'll only work if you provide questions in advance, and ask students to watch with an eye to finding answers. (I'd strongly recommend that you NOT use the idiotic "questions" supplied by the History Channel. They are useless!)
The opening section on the creation of colonial iron works at Saugus (Mass) and Cornwell and Hopewell (Pa) is informative and useful.
The section on Carnegie, titled "Genius", is too sycophantic for my tastes. You'd get the impression from looking at this that Carnegie personally produced the steel himself, and that "his" over-worked and grossly underpaid workers were just there to enjoy the scenery. This glorification of business types is the stock in trade of the video-education world, run as it is by people who have no respect for the human intellect. A pity really, since much could be learned by the viewer if the emphasis had been put (where it deserves to be) on the technology. The ONLY major process dealt with here is the Bessemer process. It is poorly explained. Nothing is said about Siemens Martin processing, or about the Gilchrist Thomas method that solved the problem of heavy phosphor ores. (None of this is as "difficult" as it sounds; and ALL of it should really be treated in this video).
In the next section, The Steel Workers are given a cameo role in the Big Strike -- Homestead, 1892. This video doesn't provide enough information on organized labor or its valid grievances against corporate plunder for students to be able to learn anything of any worth. A pity, really, given that only an honest presentation of the facts will produce intelligent discussion. But, video producers don't aim to spark discussion. They aim to numb the intellect with idiotic narration and annoying muzak.
There's a penultimate section on "merging" which covers Carnegie's decision to sell out to J.P. Morgan. Here too the viewer learns too little for it to be of much use.
The concluding section on "Rebirth" is the usual unconvincing drivel about America's renewed "competitiveness". There's no real attempt to explain why American steel failed to compete against the innovations in steel making that emerged in Europe and Japan after WWII. Nor is there even a mention of Brazil's Mini Mills which almost single-handedly humbled the once mighty and over-bearing U.S. Steel. The video claims that those foreigners are cheating, and of course American business never "cheats", so here too the viewer is treated like a numbskull.
If you learn anything from this video, it'll only be by accident. Its values are "commercial" not educational. And the results are predictable: American edutainment continues to produce comfortable numb "history buffs."
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Description of Empires of Industry - Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel (History Channel)
America is built on a steel skeleton. Without Andrew Carnegie, that skeleton-and the nation-might have taken a different form. Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel visits historic ironworks-namely Saugus and Hopewell-as well as today's massive, computerized steel mills and chronicles the evolution of the industry. Learn how Carnegie built an empire so large that it led to the first billion-dollar corporation and listen as industrial historians detail the technological developments that powered the nation's economy and launched steel into the future. Witness the setbacks, too, such as intense labor unrest and increasing international competition. Through expert interviews, period photos, and rare archival footage, THE HISTORY CHANNEL® illuminates the industry that built America-and the man who forged that industry. DVD Features: Interactive Menus; Scene Selection. Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel chronicles the rise of the iron and steel industries in the United States and the personal ascent of immigrant Andrew Carnegie, whose steel company would one day make him the richest man in America. The American iron, and later steel, industries were the backbone of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, supplying the material that would enable the growth of railroads, skyscrapers, war machines and a host of other industries. It is the story of the rise of big industry in the United States, in all its glory, and all its shame. While the steel industry would make men such as Andrew Carnegie wealthy beyond imagination, it would also cripple, maim, and kill those who toiled to keep the furnaces blasting and the steel rolling. |
Empires of Industry
Empires of Industry is a mini-series which explores the cornerstones of America's economic might that established the United States as a world leader. Each of the one hour programs in this remarkable series focuses on an industry which played a unique role in America's rise to world economic dominance. The stories of changing fortunes in the steel, coal, brewing, ship building and textile industries reveal much about our country's past and present. Empires of Industry would be useful for classes on American History, History of Science and Technology, Economics and American Culture. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.
Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel
Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel chronicles the rise of the iron and steel industries in the United States and the personal ascent of immigrant Andrew Carnegie, whose steel company would one day make him the richest man in America. The American iron, and later steel, industries were the backbone of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, supplying the material that would enable the growth of railroads, skyscrapers, war machines and a host of other industries. It is the story of the rise of big industry in the United States, in all its glory, and all its shame. While the steel industry would make men such as Andrew Carnegie wealthy beyond imagination, it would also cripple, maim, and kill those who toiled to keep the furnaces blasting and the steel rolling.
Vocabulary
? affable
? affinity
? alchemy
? charisma
? circumvent
? commodities
? consummated
? diminutive
? dire
? fervor
? gauntlet
? inherently
? logistics
? manifest destiny
? molten
? munitions
? scab
? slag
? smelting
? utopia
Discussion Questions
1. To some people, Andrew Carnegie was the manifestation of the ?American dream.? Do you agree or disagree?
2. The United States' iron and steel industries helped make the United States the most powerful nation in the world. What was the role of these industries in the U.S.' ascent to world power?
3. Molten iron is called ?pig iron.? How did it get this nickname? How does this nickname reflect the lives and times of the workers who coined it?
4. Many early iron workers, as in other early industries, were indentured servants. What is an indentured servant? How did indentured servants contribute to the growth of both colonial America and the United States?
5. How did the iron industry contribute to the American Revolution and American independence?
6. What is the ?hot blast? process and how did it change the iron industry?
7. What is the ?Bessemer? process and how is it responsible for the birth and growth of the steel industry?
8. Steel is known as the ?beast of American industry.? What is meant by this phrase and why is the steel industry associated with it?
9. Working in the steel mills was one of the most dangerous jobs in industry. What were some of the dangers to steel workers? Why would workers continue to work in so dangerous an environment?
10. How did the invention and mass production of the automobile influence the steel industry?
11. How has foreign competition changed the way America conducts business?
Extended Activities
1. Create a poster that illustrates the process of turning ore into iron in the early iron industry. Then illustrate how the advances in technology altered the process.
2. Imagine that you are a journalist during the Homestead Strike of the 1880s. Write an editorial in which you recount the events of the strike and give your views on both the workers' and owners' positions.
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