American Experience (TV Series) The Great War: Part 3 (2017) User Reviews

The End of the Battle but What's in Ourselves?

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 22 May 2017]

Let's face it. When we deal with humans, the script is way too complicated to put a story line on. This third installment of "The Great War" puts a really human face on things. The Americans were able to go to a Europe that had been battered and subdued and bring about victory. In some ways, the psychological effects of the sheer numbers had as much to do with the Armistice as did the warriors themselves. When the embattled "Hun" saw what could have been, they threw themselves upon the mercy of Woodrow Wilson. After great celebration, even in Germany, it was thought that a new world order would arise. As is usually the case with politics, there were great losers. The Germans themselves were decimated by Clemenceau and Llloyd-George at Versailles. There were also those who had were imprisoned for disloyalty and sedition here in our country, sometimes for mere idle comments made to the wrong person or for having a German name. So when the elections came, the Republicans ran the table because Wilson was seen as villainous to many. Racism still predominated despite the heroics of the African-Americans and other minorities, including Native Americans. Women still had few rights. So there was still a lot of growing to do. Of course, right around the corner was a huge economic failure in the wake of this new life for our country. A couple features in this episode that were striking. One is the story of the Lost Battalion. The story of Eddie Rickenbacker (with his German name) and the emergence of the Air Force. Also, the great flu epidemic. This was glossed over a bit but had immense implications. This is a fascinating series, as are so many of the "American Experience" offerings.

The beginning of more than a century of war.

[kardayathomas · 10/10 · 9 November 2022]

I appreciated this. I've seen so much on the First World War that often it just a repeat of what others have reported on. So I liked that they were able to bring something new. The fact that the US was only in the war for the last year and a large amount of that time they were being trained because of their little to no military experience. So to put together 6 hours is impressive. Now that being said they did retread material spoken of by previous documentaries but that is understandable. But they also go into how the great influenza(Spanish Flu) was ravaging the world in the war's last year. Most documentaries never even mention the flu. It also brought up the epidemic of race riots that engulfed the United States following the wars end. Most don't know anything about this. That the year after the war, 1919 became known as Red Summer in the US, because of all the blood spilt in the lynchings & race riots that plagued the country.

WW1 is the event that changed everything. The wars and the political scene since the First World War is a fallout that was shaped that war that tore the world apart and broke it to pieces and people have been trying to pick up those pieces ever since.

Too much liberal bent

[gallowaychris46 · 4/10 · 9 December 2018]

I elected to watch this documentary on "The Great War" and what I saw was more liberal intersectionality..black oppression, women suffrage, Eugene debs, etc... Never mentions Great War leaders like MacArthur and Patton, but overwhelmingly reports on the Harlem Hellfighters and how Woodrow Wilson was a flawed individual. Military history is not the focus of this documentary. Social programming and value signaling is.