Any time you try to compress something as huge as the roughly two hundred thirty-four year history of the United States into a nine-hour DVD package, you’re going to be left with plenty of holes. Still though, due credit goes to the History Channel, who tried its level best to pack history into a deeply entertaining and informative venture with America: The Story of Us, a copy of which the folks out at History sent for review.

America: The Story of Us, as I described earlier, takes the history of America and compresses it, from start to the modern day, into a nine-hour, three DVD package that shows America’s history, from beginning to westward expansion to boom and bust and beyond.  Our triumphs are here, as are our failings–this is no rose-colored view of history: America has made its share of mistakes, and they will be shown here just as much as the greatness we’ve done in our day.

The history presented in dramatic form will be supplemented by small snippets from authors and names, some which will make more sense than others–Colin Powell is here, and David Petraeus, commenting on military matters. Some figures just don’t make sense–Sheryl Crow is here, for instance, with a weird rambling comment on women’s issues in pioneer times, and this makes precious little sense.  Bringing in Donald Trump to comment on business matters might have been better in the eighties than in the modern day, and I don’t know what the guy from Pawn Stars was thinking when he showed up.

Still though, much like America’s history itself, there’s lots to like here–plenty of great and well put together, as well as highly accessible moments. And there will also be plenty no one likes–for instance, where is the World War I commentary?  It’s virtually nonexistent! Some things have to be sacrificed to get it all in a decent run time, of course, but the first ever worldwide war? Really? How about skimming a bit off that interminable bit with the Donner Party to give World War I a bit more airplay?

Again, strictly a personal thing, because what America: The Story of Us does do, and do pretty well, is take the massive two hundred thirty-four year bulk of American history and compress it into an accessible, and eminently watchable, nine hour block.

That’s a compression ratio of about 227760 : 1.

A conversation starter, a great resource for schools and students alike, and an incredible presentation, the History Channel’s America: The Story of Us gets an eight out of ten for sheer ambition, even if it doesn’t always succeed in its efforts.