The Presidents

The quintessential series on the history of the number one job in the United States, being President. From George Washington to George W. Bush, we get to learn about the ups and down & ins and outs of every office holder, as narrated by the late Edward Hermann. This is a very educational series and should be shown in every highschool across the country, especially during years of presidential elections because every American kid should learn about their leaders and especially more about the founding fathers and what they did to shape the the United States.

With interviews from the top presidential scholars of the time, each episode is full of history and facts. While President Jimmy Carter is the only former leader who makes an appearance himself, others are shown in news footage and past election coverage. Each episode is split into different eras, spanning 28 to 40 years, and it's not a biased documentary series against any one political party or particular president, which is nice.

It's one of my favorite documentaries on the subject of Presidents, but if you are to buy a personal copy of the series on dvd, there are two different versions available. In one version, the final episode is re-edited to include Barack Obama, who wasn't elected until 2008, and that episodes narration is also redubbed not to include Edward Hermann. The original version with Hermann's narration is the better version.

If only history was this interesting 50 years ago, I might have learned a few more things as a kid. Well, better late than never because TV shows like this will teach you more about history than you learned in years of being half-asleep in school. The subject with this TV "special" was a brief look at all the United States Presidents.

It was broken up into four or five one-hour segments and I found the earlier ones to be the most interesting, probably because I knew a lot more about 20th century Presidents.

For a few examples: The first U.S. President, George Washington, was perhaps the most amazing man who has ever stepped in office and the only one elected unanimously (twice). He was a tough act to follow, especially for a weak leader like John Adams, who was then followed by a stronger man in Thomas Jefferson. Too bad Jefferson hated the job so much he refused to note that he was a President on his gravestone.

The fourth President, James Madison, was the first to actually face enemy fire at the White House and his successor, James Monore was the last of the "Revolutionary generation." His legacy was the "Monroe Doctrine," which he didn't even write. That was written by the next President, John Quincy Adams, who did little except be miserable most of the time. He and the next President, Andrew Jackson, fought the dirtiest Presidential campaign in history, it was said on this TV program.

The program continues on with a lot about the complicated nature of Jackson, and goes on with the rest of the Preisents all the way to George W. Bush. Most of the leaders get 5-10 minutes of air time. I noticed Abraham Lincoln's segment lasted almost a half hour, so not everyone is treated equally. But since it's Abe and my favorite President of them all, I wasn't complaining.

Generally speaking, though, we hear many of the good and bad points of most of the Presidents and much of the stuff, I presume, are facts we didn't know. It's all extremely interesting material and this program is highly recommended. One thing you can't help noticing: many of the negative aspects of politics that are around today have always been there. In that regard, nothing has changed: just the names, faces and scandals.

I felt that this documentary series shown on the History Channel was delightfully enlightening. The documentaries were based off of the James Mcpherson book To the Best of My Abiltiy. James Mcpherson is one of the most well respected American Civil War historians and authors. I was surprised to learn that he had made a book that encompassed every Presidential Administration in the history of the United States. The documentaries follow the book in the normal History Channel style, a narrator guides the viewer through a series of historical images interspersed with interviews from historians and other experts. Every President is highlighted and the documentary does a good job at giving a fair, yet friendly perspective on most of the Presdiential legacies. The few exceptions are for the most infamous and famous of presidents. This was the case for Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's racist and brutal successor, and FDR, whose lesser known faults were brought to attention. I would have preferred the series to simply skip over the Administrations which the average History Channel viewer is already very familiar with and go more in depth into the Administrations of our forgotten "care taker" Presidents. What i enjoyed most about the series was its all around pleasantness. The soft color schemes and the soothing voice of the narrator, Edward Hermann I believe, worked together to create a highly enjoyable documentary. I think I am the only one who watched this though. The page is completely empty, I hope there are others who saw this series and enjoyed it as I did.

This series from the History Channel covers all 43 presidents from Washington to Bush and it runs about 6 hours in length.

Each president is covered in some detail with descriptions not only of the key historical events of their presidency but more importantly what each was like as a person.

Both their strengths and weaknesses are discussed and the coverage seemed fair.

There is a little baseball-like "trading card" that pops up for each president that summarizes what they were like that grew on me as the series unfolded and marked a clear start of the next president.

There are some decent extras as well to round this offering out.

I was disappointed that only interview actually conducted with a still living president was with Jimmy Carter and I would really would have liked to hear a few words from the others.

The coverage of the early presidents actually seemed better than those of more recent vintage.

Trying to stayed focused and involved as much as possible, I found the pace slow at times but clearly some presidents were more interesting than others so perhaps that is understandable. How much gripping information can be provided about someone like Millard Fillmore?

I also would have liked a little more discussion on the election campaigns. Who was the opponent and what were the issues? Why did this man win over the other? This aspect is covered pretty extensively for some presidents but is often non-existent for others.

Recommended for those interested in politics and/or American history, but perhaps a little dry for others. Still I learned a lot of new things that surprised and sometimes amused me about American presidents.

As a teacher, I have to say that this series is the perfect set-up for introducing a president to the class. The focused narrative, pictures, and antedotes keep the attention of most students. Of course, they remember that Taft got stuck in the bathtub, and comment that FDR's wife was less than beautiful, but hey, they're high school juniors.

Of course they remember more than the silly stuff. While reading a chapter or an essay about a president, it is remarkable to find out how much they remember from the videos. Wilson the moralistic president, TR the man who built the canal while Congress debated, "Silent Cal," Hoover the engineer, Washington, the man of "firsts," G.W. our beloved cowboy, Reagan the Great Communicator, Naxon and Watergate...the list goes on. A great way to break up a class for 5-10 minutes and give the students a chance to see instead of read.