Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As a history teacher myself, I was excited to see the promos for this series on the History Channel, and eagerly awaited the premiere of the first episode. However, having watched the two hour premiere, I must say that I am completely disappointed with this series. Of course, what can we expect from a History Channel that has descended into the depths of reality show garbage like Ax Men and Ice Road Truckers. I am still trying to figure out what that has to do with HISTORY! Anyway, this series has three main problems: 1) They gloss over people/events that are two important to gloss over. Most glaringly, in the episode about the American Revolution, they spend a total of 45 seconds on the Continental Congress. As John Adams himself said, the Revolution was not the war, for that was really a means to the end of the process of Revolution. Instead, the real Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people, including the leaders in the Congress. If they want to talk about the origins of America, they needed to spend much more time on the politics and philosophy of those months of debate within the Congress leading up to the Declaration of Independence. 2) There are a number of inaccuracies, whether explicit or implied, and both applying to fact and historiographical interpretation of fact. For example, the events surrounding the Saratoga campaign in the Revolution. They imply Washington was in command of the Continentals and militia there, but he was not. The command was held jointly by Benedict Arnold (pre-traitor Arnold) and Horatio Gates, but neither of them are even mentioned. Also, this whole segment advances the myth that we won the war because our boys hid behind rocks with Kentucky Rifles, and the dumb British couldn't adapt. In actuality, those Kentucky Riflemen had to be constantly protected from British soldiers with musket and bayonet by Continentals with bayonet-equipped muskets. Their rifles could not be equipped with bayonets, and took much longer to reload than the musket. This left them vulnerable to a bayonet attack, the British specialty. And the French role in our victory went far beyond just naval strength. The French Army was instrumental in our victory at Yorktown, but their ground forces are not even mentioned. 3) The choice of commentators was odd, to say the least. Very few actual historians are called on for comment. Instead, they bring in some political leaders (Newt Gingrich, Michael Bloomberg), celebrities (Michael Douglas commenting on Jamestown?), and moguls (Donald Trump and the founder of Wikipedia). Why not bring in Carrot Top or Jay Leno or Kate Goselyn? Come on! Where is David McCollough, or any number of historians they could have brought in for comment on a documentary event of this size and scope? The History Channel used to be capable of so much better. Look at their series on the Presidents or their Presidency Revealed documentaries, or even older series like The American Revolution or Founding Brothers. This is just plain rubbish!