When I went to school, way, way back in the day and we learned our ABC’s, math, geography, history, etc. we really did learn a lot about our country and the world. Today it is a whole different outlook education wise and when it comes to history, there is so much that has been eliminated and left out. Because of that our young people have little clue of what the world and this great country really are about and how we have gotten to where we are with all the conveniences and products that came to be in the name of progress.

That being said, I have always been a big fan of the History Channel because you can learn a hell of a lot more from many of their programs than you will learn in school. Whether it is about the Civil War, the founding of the country, the inventions that built this country, WW I and WWII, Viet Nam, landing on the moon or whatever, the History Channel gives it to you straight, honest and in eye opening detail. What you get, for the most part, you will not find in history books or taught and learned in school. They recently ran a series about the “Titans Who Built America” and the “Men Who Built America” focusing on all of the good, and bad, that people like Rockefeller, Ford, JP Morgan, Carnegie and others did to make this country what it is today. There is also a series “The Food that Built America” as well that is fascinating.The amount of learning you get from each episode is far more than any history book would tell you.

Now the History Channel is running a series titled “The Machines That Built America” and again it is historic, eye opening, educational and fascinating to see how men with an idea and a dream could make it come true and what it would mean for the future of this great country. The infighting, back stabbing and corrupt ways of some to steal that dream from their creators led to some of the incredible discoveries and moves forward in the country and the world. In one of the episodes that dealt with farm machinery did you know that it was Henry Ford who came up with the farm tractor idea long before John Deere, Caterpillar and others? In another episode regarding the invention of television, David Sarnoff, head of RCA and a Russian-American inventor Vladimir K. Zworykin, actually stole the idea for television from a man named Philo Farnsworth who had actually had it patented. Or how William Boeing was laughed at when he said airplanes would carry people, not just mail from city to city. He never gave up the dream and would prove them wrong. Boeing would begin the first commercial airline in 1929 and called it United Airlines.

The series airs on Sunday nights at 9 pm EST. This coming Sunday the main subject will be the beginnings and rise of Harley-Davidson. If you are a history buff and want to learn some facts you may not have ever known and what these great creators had to go through to prove their worth, then this is the series to watch. You can always go to their online site at www.history.com  and find past episodes of these various series to watch. As I said earlier, it is shows like this that will give you the real, honest stories that will never be found in the pages of a history book.

Art Koch, National Features & DVD Editor, NightMoves Magazine