History Series / TheMenWhoBuiltAmerica

!! Tropes featured in the series include:

* TheTeetotaler: John D. Rockefeller, devout Baptist who never drank. One of Carnegie's gag gifts to him was a bottle of Dewar's White Label (ie. the good stuff).

* YouSayTomato: The scholars and historians interviewed can't seem to reach a consensus on how to pronounce Andrew Carnegie's last name. Whether it's CAR-neh-gee or Car-NEH-gee. The actual Carnegie biographer favors Car-NEH-gee, though, so that seems to be correct way.

The series tells its tale with broad strokes, mostly through dramatizations, and obviously some liberties are taken and some important historical things are omitted or glossed over. The narrative is punctuated by commentary by historians, scholars, and some modern-day entrepreneurs like Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, and Russell Simmons, who offer some insight into the mind of the businessman. The series produced two spinoffs ''The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen'' and ''The Food that Built America''

* YankTheDogsChain: After a long hard battle with Edison and Morgan, Westinghouse Electric wins the bid to develop the Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant. Yay! Alternating Current is vindicated, and Westinghouse and Tesla have triumphed! Well...no. J.P. Morgan sues them for copyright infringement, claiming he and Edison own the rights to AC. He knows he has no legal ground to stand on, but he also knows that Westinghouse doesn't have the money to fight a prolonged court battle. Westinghouse has no choice to but to surrender the royalties. Morgan, you MagnificentBastard.

* EsotericHappyEnding: The Anti-Trust commission breaks up Standard Oil, which is a victory for anti-trust forces, to be sure. But now, instead of being owner of one big oil company, John D. Rockefeller is now CEO of a bunch of smaller companies. And he's still the richest and most powerful man in America.

* MagnificentBastard: Several, but J.P. Morgan is probably the greatest of them all.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The monopolists want to get rid of Theodore Roosevelt before he and his antitrust plans become too popular to do anything against him, managing to make Roosevelt the Vicepresident as they consider most people will just forget him after four years without doing absolutely nothing for lack of any real power. Then President [=McKinley=] is murdered just a few months later, kickstarting a nearly full term Roosevelt Presidency, whose antitrust actions made him too popular to do anything against him.

** Not much time is spent on Henry Ford, so his documented Batshit Insanity is not shown. Instead he's depicted as a "man of the people," who wants to make automobiles available to everyone, not just the wealthy.

* ItsPronouncedTroPAY: The scholars and historians interviewed can't seem to reach a consensus on how to pronounce Andrew Carnegie's last name. Whether it's CAR-neh-gee or Car-NEH-gee. The actual Carnegie biographer favors Car-NEH-gee, though, so that seems to be correct way.

* YouHaveOutLivedYourUsefulness: Morgan kicks Edison out of the company he created once he's established it as the primary electricity provider of the Northeast.

The series tells its tale with broad strokes, mostly through dramatizations, and obviously some liberties are taken and some important historical things are omitted or glossed over. The narrative is punctuated by commentary by historians, scholars, and some modern-day entrepreneurs like Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, and Russell Simmons, who offer some insight into the mind of the businessman.

The series begins immediately after the end of the UsefulNote/AmericanCivilWar, with the United States recovering from the most destructive conflict it has ever seen. There is a need to rebuild, to create an infrastructure that will strengthen the nation. And where there is a need, there is an opportunity, for the savvy entrepreneur. A opportunity to help develop the country, and get filthy stinking rich in the process. The series begins with the development of the rail industry, and the first great industrialist, RailroadBaron Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt, who grew wealthy through a combination of business acumen and some plain old dirty tricks, and who consequently set the standard for the giants of industry who would follow.

* AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqd4VXZmxqw&feature=kp "Save My Soul" by Blues Saraceno]], the opening theme music.

* ThomasEdison: ''Also'' makes an appearance. Is a JerkAss, but is still Thomas Edison, so he's still kind of Awesome.

* TheodoreRoosevelt: Also makes an appearance. Is also Awesome.

* DawnOfAnEra: TheGildedAge, the age of unfettered, ''laissez-faire'' capitalism, and arguably a redefinition of the AmericanDream in more materialistic terms.

* NikolaTesla: Makes an appearance. Is Awesome.

* HeadInTheSandManagement: While Henry Frick is crushing strikers with Pinkertons, damaging vital dams while building his luxury private club, and just generally acting like a Gilded-Age rich prick, Andrew Carnegie is in Scotland playing golf, blissfully unaware at how Frick is running his company. By the time he realizes what a mistake he made in trusting Frick, it's too late to do anything but fire the man.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade:

* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: The office of Vice President of the United States is predominately a prestige position: under normal circumstances, the Vice President has virtually no political power. Back in the 19th Century, it was a good place to dump troublesome political figures; it gives them the appearance of having power while denying them any actual power. This was what [=McKinley's=] backers planned to do with Roosevelt. And it would have worked; the only way Roosevelt could conceivably have gotten real political power was if something happened to [=McKinley=]. Like, say, if a mentally-unbalanced, unemployed factory worker should come to see the pro-business President as the source of all his woes, and decides to take drastic action. Oh...wait...

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: To almost hilarious levels. Every time there's an innovation, someone pooh-poohs it as a fad or a dead end. Mass-production of steel? Too impractical! Electric lighting? A mere novelty! Alternating Current? Too dangerous to ever be useful! Gasoline? A worthless byproduct of petroleum refining! They'll never work!

* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: The office of Vice President of the United States is predominately a prestige position: under normal circumstances, the Vice President has virtually no political power. Back in the 19th Century, it was a good place to dump troublesome political figures; it gives them the appearance of having power while denying them any actual power. And this was what [=McKinley's=] backers planned to do with Roosevelt. And it would have worked; the only way Roosevelt could conceivably have gotten real political power was if something happened to [=McKinley=]. Like, say, if a mentally-unbalanced, unemployed factory worker should come to see the pro-business President as the source of all his woes, and decides to take drastic action. Oh...wait...
* ItsPronouncedTroPAY: The scholars and historians interviewed can't seem to reach a consensus on how to pronounce Andrew Carnegie's last name. Whether it's CAR-neh-gee or Car-NEH-gee. The actual Carnegie scholar favors Car-NEH-gee, though, so that seems to be correct way.

** Downplayed with Frick. He was never was punished for kill thousands with a faulty dam and dozens in the Homestead Strike. He was, however wounded in an assassination attempt, and was fired and given a (relatively) shameful severance package by Carnegie, who ultimately lets him go without a word.

** Downplayed with Frick. He was never was punished for kill thousands with a faulty dam and dozens in the Homestead Strike. He was, however wounded in an assassination, and was fired and given a (relatively) terrible severance package by Carnegie.
* Carnegie defies this. While he may not have been directly responsible for the actions of Frick, his guilt pushed him to donate his entire fortune to charity.

As the series progresses, it focuses on the rivalry between oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, men who were very much polar opposites in background and personality and soon found themselves clashing in their quest to be the Richest Man In The World. Meanwhile, as Rockefeller and Carnegie build empires out of virtually nothing, the son of a New York banking family, one John Pierpont Morgan, wants to do the same, creating an innovation that will revolutionize the modern world (and make him a ton of money). He funds an inventor by the name of Creator/ThomasEdison, who promises great things with this "electric light" thing he's working on. Which in turn puts him in conflict with Rockefeller, who has a virtual monopoly on artificial lighting thanks to his control of the domestic kerosene supply. And Edison's insistence on sticking with the low-voltage Direct Current delivery method - as opposed to the higher-voltage-but-potentially-more-dangerous Alternating Current method - triggers a full-on war between himself and one of his former protégés, some weirdo by the name of Tesla...