I've been watching John Adams, the mini-series on HBO, for the past month or so. I have found it to be most excellent. I should have posted about it earlier, as this past Sunday was the finale. I'm sure they will either show it again or put it out on DVD pretty quickly, however. I am always amazed at how little US history I really know well, although my last US History class was in 11th grade so I really shouldn't be so surprised. I think this was very, very good. My only complaint is that I was a little confused at how some of the personalities were portrayed (especially Franklin and Jefferson). They just didn't mesh with my memory, but I assume these folks have researched history more throughly and more recently than I.
Cheryl started the first one, but this was a lot of television for her to commit to over a long period of time. If we had it on DVD I'm sure she'd watch the whole thing.
One thumb up!!!
NYC
2 comments:
It was a great show indeed! DVD is coming out in June.
There may have been two factors at work: 1) The show was Adams-centric so to some degree showed how Adams viewed those people, and 2) high school history classes lie (just like grade school ones: 'Columbus discovered America' indeed!).
A good book, "Founding Brothers" by Joseph J. Ellis, gives a pretty good rounding out of the seven personalities he deems important to the founding: Adams, Burr, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and of course Washington. A fairly easy read that describes the Hamilton-Burr duel among other events.
Then, if you want to get a bit depressed, you can read "American Creation" by the same author. That one was about how our good intentions paved the way to heck for slaves and native Americans (though it also covers the successes, like the creation of the Constitution).
The Boston scenes were filmed about three miles away from my house. The set is still there. Our small brush with fame.
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