The Road to Riches
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: 1851 to 1945
S1 • E5 Aug 6, 2000 55m
Fueled by one scientific breakthrough after another, the Second Industrial Revolution supercharged both manufacturing and trade, but it also led to economic rivalries that indirectly resulted in two world wars. In this program, host Peter Jay, Henry Kissinger, historians Richard Overy and Chris Ellmers, and Miller Carnegie, great-grandson of Andrew Carnegie, analyze the importance of science and technology, banking and big business, immigration, nationalism, and laissez-faire capitalism as forces for rapid societal change. Economic collapse in post-World War I Germany and America is also addressed.