Very Interesting, May 21, 2009

This video is good only for a few things: a) the 1st Chapter on Disc 1 (United States Becomes a World Power)which covers time from the Reconstruction to the popping off of WWI. I could see showing about 5 minutes of this at the beginning of a 1865 US survey course to set the stage for what will happen over the next few weeks b) 2nd disc - the Korean War chapter is pretty good, despite the monotone narrator. c)Operation Storm - good info, but horrible dvd quality in this Chapter.IMPORTANT HEADS UP: There is no chapter jumping within a war. For instructors or buffs interested in a specific battle, you'll need to fast forward manually (time consuming), rather than click on a chapter to get there. Make time notations on your own as to when a specific event takes place on the disk.

I bought this for my husband who is in the military. He is also a history buff. I agreed to watch it with him, not all that happy about it. I quickly changed my mind. The transitions from scene to scene are nice and they way they describe the events is very real. For a documentary, this was entertaining.