Three Cheers for Ray Mears

[JTG]

I didn't watch it at all but I enjoyed reading the first part of this thread - all the greats posting away

 

[mack]

Bumpity bump - another episode @9pm on BBC4.

 

[weltweit]

Bumpity bump - another episode @9pm on BBC4.

great watching now

 

[wiskey]

Utterly fascinating, just think about making that journey, enduring all the hardships and perils... And then giving up and turning round and going back again when setting up a homestead goes wrong.

 

[weltweit]

How could the exterminate all those Buffalo just for their skins, what an atrocity!

 

[sojourner]

Yeh, we caught it on iplayer - chuffed to fucking bits there's another RM prog on the telly!

 

[Cid]

How could the exterminate all those Buffalo just for their skins, what an atrocity!

Not just for their skins... It undermined native American populations, forcing them off cattle-rearing land and onto the reservations, it got rid of animals competing for space with domestic cattle and it cleared the way for the railroad.

 

[wiskey]

I wonder what it would be like if the railroad hadn't gone coast to coast so early, if it had been a month journey by coach for longer.

 

[sim667]

I didn't know how the west was won has been done by mears..... I'll try and watch it on catch up.

I saw one where he looked at the partisans during ww2, that was very interesting.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Excellent series. Those poor fuckers dying out in the desert. 200 a year. Horrific.

 

[trabuquera]

Anyone else a bit worried by how easily Mears seems to run out of puff? I know he's a big lad (and that survival is more about skills than fitness) but he does seem to get a bit breathy at the slightest exertion... this is not a dig - just wondered whether he might have asthma/something systemic.

A generally top series - full of good info - but obviously pretty hard to walk that tightrope between being respectful of Native American history / practices / people, and presenting a series called HOW THE WEST WAS WON (ff)s!

 

[youngian]

Never seen Ray Mears before but being interested in the brave foolhardy American pioneers behind the cowboy myths I've enjoyed his programme about the West. The individual and political stories are tragic and fascianting. And find out how the European fashion for top hats drove the seemingly impossible journey to the West coast.

 

[SpookyFrank]

A generally top series - full of good info - but obviously pretty hard to walk that tightrope between being respectful of Native American history / practices / people, and presenting a series called HOW THE WEST WAS WON (ff)s!

He does manage to put across the idea that it was politicians and industry magnates who were to blame for most of what happened to the natives. He explains how settlers in the Appalachians got on famously with the indigenous folk and had nothing to do with the decision to expel them, that sort of thing. He also talks about the sort of people who would've joined the US army and gone to fight the Apache; people just looking for a better life for themselves, not bloodthirsty or genocidal people.

The series was laced with references to exploitation by capitalists, the people who would become America's de facto aristocracy. Very little mention of slavery though, which raised a few eyebrows here.

 

[Crispy]

Forgive my ignorance if I'm wrong, but I didn't think slavery paid a significant role in the migration to the west?

 

[Dillinger4]

Bleeding Kansas