The Men Who Built America: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Miniseries shines a spotlight on the influential builders, dreamers, and believers whose feats transformed the United States, a nation decaying from the inside after the Civil War, into the greatest economic and technological superpower the world had ever seen. The story of a nation at the crossroads and of the people who catapulted it to prosperity. 

John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and J.P. Morgan rose from obscurity and built modern America. Their names hang on street signs, are etched into buildings, and are a part of the fabric of history. These men created the American Dream and were the engine of capitalism as they transformed everything they touched in building the oil, rail, steel, shipping, automobile, and finance industries. Their paths repeatedly crossed as they elected presidents, set economic policies, and influenced major events of the 50 most formative years this country has ever known. From the Civil War to the Great Depression and World War I, they led the way. Using state of the art computer-generated imagery that incorporates 12 million historical negatives, many made available for the first time by the Library of Congress, this series will bring back to life the world they knew and the one they created. The event series will show how these men took a failed experiment in democracy and created the greatest superpower the world has ever seen. We see how their historic achievements came to make the America of today.

Series details

• Title: The Men Who Built America
• Format: Documentary
• Language: English
• Genres: History
• Premiere date: 2012-10-16
• Final broadcast date listed: 2012-11-11
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: History
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 120 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 19532
• IMDb ID: tt2167393
• TVDB ID: 262447

Cast and credited roles

• Adam Jonas Segaller — Andrew Carnegie
• Tim Getman — John D. Rockefeller
• David Donahoe — Cornelius Vanderbilt
• John C. Bailey — Henry Frick
• Eric Rolland — JP Morgan
• Don Meehan — Thomas A. Scott
• Cary Donaldson — Henry Ford

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2012-10-16; final listed air date 2012-11-11; episode order: 4.

Source and licence

Adapted from The Men Who Built America on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.