America 1900: The Turning Point (American Experience)

The story of this one remarkable year will air as a three-hour documentary on The American Experience in November 1998. In January 1, 1900, as Americans tried to divine the future of the twentieth century, what no one could foresee was that the issues they were dealing with were much the same as those that would face their grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the year 2000. Change had come so fast that there was an almost magical belief in the powers of science and technology. The country had never been more prosperous but the disparity between rich and poor had never been greater. Slavery was dead but racism was growing. The narrative begins New Year's Day in Washington, D.C., as President McKinley shrugs off warnings that his life may be in danger. Never far from the seat of power is Theodore Roosevelt, "the coming American of the twentieth century." Throughout the year, as Crichton details one event after the other--the greatest mine disaster in American history; the banning of a salacious play; an historic election campaign; the Galveston flood; the Harvard-Yale football game; a great labor victory; the emergence of the first billion-dollar corporation--the forces of the future are moving into place.