Thirteen-part documentary in which Alistair Cooke traces the full arc of American history from first European contact to the early 1970s, drawing on four decades of personal observation. The series was the idea of producer Michael Gill, who also chose Cooke as its presenter. A co-production between the BBC and Time-Life Films, it first broadcast in both Britain and the United States in November 1972, running through to February 1973.
Cooke wrote every word himself, and when asked how long the series had taken to make, he replied that he did not want to be coy, but that it had taken forty years. That answer was not false modesty: Cooke had arrived in America as a visiting fellow after university and never really left, and the series is as much a record of his own long attachment to the country as it is a conventional history. He worked alongside the scholar Sir Denis William Brogan in its preparation.
The thirteen episodes move chronologically, from the Spanish and French settlements of the early colonial period through the Revolution, the Civil War, westward expansion, mass immigration, the Depression, the Second World War, and into the turbulence of the 1960s. The final episode measured contemporary America against the original intentions of its founders and found the distance considerable. The series was nominated for both a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, and its success led directly to Cooke being invited to address the joint Houses of Congress as part of the American Bicentennial celebrations.
A companion book, Alistair Cooke's America, sold close to two million copies. Cooke himself said it was the work of which he was most proud.
Production Details
UK / BBC2 - BBC, Time-Life Films / 1972-1973
Writers: Alistair Cooke
Directors: Michael Gill
