The likes of Jim Cramer and Mark Cuban make for poor historians.
Well, I'm a professional historian who has taught this era of history, and I didn't find much to disagree with anything Cramer, Cuban et al said. They mostly spoke in broad strokes and cliches (big-time business leaders think big, dream big, take risks, are smart, see the future, etc., etc., etc., etc. Yeah, we get it), so there wasn't a whole lot to disagree with most of the time. Plus, they're not historians, but they do know business, finance, entrepreneurship, etc. And they are recognizable, thus people who watch the history channel can find someone they know or can relate to. It's just a matter of the History Channel considering its audience. Great historians would put many people to sleep - and they often have in countless other documentaries.
Also, while I suppose certain aspects of the series were celebratory, I didn't get the feeling that that was the overall theme. It's more a matter of understanding the significance of these guys and why they're so important still to this day. Yes, the common women and men of the era, the laborers, and so forth, etc., were the story. Anyone who knows an ounce of social history knows that. But we're being dishonest with ourselves if we don't recognize the incredible game-changers that guys like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, etc., were. A lot of people I know today know next to nothing about these titans, and the titans are worth knowing about.
The series had its flaws (exaggerating certain things, omitting others, dramatizing things in a way that didn't quite actually happen, repetitive scenes, cliches from non-historians), but overall I enjoyed it and thought it was well done. Most dramatized versions of history aren't even close to this accurate, and nearly all documentaries contain inaccuracies (including such masterpieces as Ken Burns's Civil War series).
I don't expect documentaries like these to be perfect in every way or totally accurate. I do hope that they are well made, mostly accurate, and entertaining so that they perk up people's interests. This series succeeded mightily in doing that. In the months since this series came out, I've heard more people talking about the history of the late 19th century business tycoons than ever. That can only be a good thing.
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