science

The Men Who Built America

The Men Who Built America is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Men Who Built America rather than just read about it. In short: The Men Who Built America (also known as The Innovators: The Men Who Built America in some international markets) is an eight-part miniseries docudrama by the History Channel. It is the first installment of the That Built franchise.

Key takeaways

The Men Who Built America belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Men Who Built America to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Men Who Built America from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Men Who Built America (also known as The Innovators: The Men Who Built America in some international markets) is an eight-part miniseries docudrama by the History Channel. It is the first installment of the That Built franchise.

Overview The series focuses on the lives of Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, and Henry Ford. It tells how their industrial innovations and business empires revolutionized modern society. The series is directed by Patrick Reams and Ruán Magan and is narrated by Campbell Scott. It averaged 2.6 million total viewers (1.2 million adults 25–54 and 1 million adults 18–49) across four nights.

Cast Additional narration was provided by H. W. Brands, Mark Cuban, Donny Deutsch, Donald Trump, Jim Cramer, and Steve Case.

William Jennings Bryan – James Kidd Andrew Carnegie – (The Elder) – Adam Jonas Segaller Andrew Carnegie – (The Younger) – AJ Achinger Thomas Edison – Justin Morck James Fisk – Kenneth Cavett Henry Ford – Cary Donaldson Henry Clay Frick – John C. Bailey Jay Gould – Cameron McNary William McKinley – Dan Odell J. P. Morgan – (The Elder) – Ray Reynolds J. P. Morgan – (The Younger) – Eric Rolland Junius Spencer Morgan – Daniel Berkey John D. Rockefeller – Tim Getman Theodore Roosevelt – Joseph Wiegand Charles M. Schwab – John Keabler Thomas A. Scott – Don Meehan Nikola Tesla – Alex Falberg Cornelius Vanderbilt – David Donahoe William Henry Vanderbilt – Michael Chmiel George Westinghouse – Einar Gunn

Episodes Eight individual episodes were produced for the series; however, for the program's initial broadcast on History Channel, they were combined into four episodes.

Release It was originally broadcast on the History Channel in autumn 2012, and on the History Channel UK in fall 2013.

Reception

Critical response On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 62% of 13 critics' reviews are positive. On Metacritic the series has a score of 60 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Neil Genzlinger from The New York Times observed that the series did not contain startling revelations about its principal subjects, although certainly gave them a modern-day relevance. Linda Holmes writing for NPR ridiculed the series for dull presentation, corny re-enactments and ineffective narration. She criticized the production for feeling "a lot like a tricked-out version of an elementary school filmstrip" and suggested that the series might be popular among those who accepted Donald Trump as one of the experts. Geoff Berkshire from Variety criticized the series for "overblown recreations backed by bombastic music, combined with tepid performances by the re-enactors and rudimentary writing". Mentioning the series' "ostentatious style [that] begins to grate within the first 30 minutes", he scorned "the talking heads [that] simply feel like filler" and the particular style of padding out the runtime when "the viewers are subjected to the customary recap of the previous segment after every ad break." He concluded that unlike the game-changing icons it intended to celebrate, the series failed to leave its mark. Verne Gay from Newsday gave the series "C" grade for "self-serving, obvious or of the fortune cookie variety" tips dispensed by the guests and for the lack of subtlety and historic context. On another hand, he praised the well-produced, although often static, recreations.

Home media The miniseries has been released by The History Channel on January 22, 2013, in a three-disc set in both DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats.

References

External links The Men Who Built America at the History Channel official website The Men Who Built America at IMDb

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Men Who Built America

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Men Who Built America claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Men Who Built America before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Men Who Built America ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Men Who Built America

In research: The Men Who Built America appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Men Who Built America in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Men Who Built America is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010s American drama television miniseries, 2012 American television series debuts, 2012 American television series endings, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Men Who Built America outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Men Who Built America in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Men Who Built America means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Men Who Built America out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Men Who Built America in simple terms?

Why does The Men Who Built America matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Men Who Built America?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Men Who Built America.