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American Experience

American Experience is TV's most-watched history series and brings to life incredible characters and compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today. Acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, American Experience documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast award, including 30 Emmy Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards, and 18 George Foster Peabody Awards; the series received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 2015 for Last Days in Vietnam.

Started:
  • 1988-10-04
Ended:
  • --
Genres:
  • History
Airs on:
  • Tuesday
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Running
Type: Documentary
Seasons: 36
Selected by: 27 PPL
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Episode Dates and Show Summary for American Experience (Newest First)

 
Season 36
+ American Experience #6  Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal 23rd Apr 2024 20 hours ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 36, Episode 6 - "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal"
No Summary Available...
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #4  Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal 23rd Apr 2024 20 hours ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 36, Episode 4 - "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal"
Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal tells the dramatic and inspiring story of the ordinary women who fought against overwhelming odds for the health and safety of their families. In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal, a working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, discovered that their homes, schools, and playgrounds were built on top of a former chemical waste dump, which was now leaking toxic substances and wreaking havoc on their health. Through interviews with many of the extraordinary housewives turned activists, the film shows how they effectively challenged those in power, forced America to reckon with the human cost of unregulated industry, and created a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #5  Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space 31st Mar 2024 3 weeks ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 36, Episode 5 - "Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space"
No Summary Available...
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #3  The Cancer Detectives 27th Mar 2024 3 weeks ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 36, Episode 3 - "The Cancer Detectives"
The Trailblazers who landed the first blow against cancer.The story of how the life-saving cervical cancer test became an ordinary part of women's lives is as unusual and remarkable as the coalition of people who ultimately made it possible: a Greek immigrant, Dr. George Papanicolau; his intrepid wife, Mary; Japanese-born artist Hashime Murayama; Dr. Helen Dickens, an African American OBGYN in Philadelphia; and an entirely new class of female scientists known as cyto-screeners. But the test was just the beginning. Once the test proved effective, the campaign to make pap smears available to millions of women required nothing short of a total national mobilization. The Cancer Detectives tells the untold story of the first-ever war on cancer and the people who fought tirelessly to save women from what was once the number one cancer killer of women.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #2  Fly With Me 21st Feb 2024 2 months ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 36, Episode 2 - "Fly With Me"
Fly With Me tells the story of the pioneering young women who became flight attendants at a time when single women were unable to order a drink, eat alone in a restaurant, own a credit card or get a prescription for birth control. Becoming a "stewardess," as they were called, offered unheard-of opportunities for travel, glamour, adventure and independence. Although often maligned as feminist sellouts, these women were on the frontlines of the battle to assert gender equality and transform the workplace. Featuring firsthand accounts, personal stories and a rich archival record, the film tells the lively and important but neglected history of the women who changed the world while flying it.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #1  Nazi Town, USA 24th Jan 2024 2 months ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 36, Episode 1 - "Nazi Town, USA"
In February 1939, more than 20,000 Americans filled Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a "Pro-American Rally." Images of George Washington hung next to swastikas and speakers railed against the "Jewish controlled media" and called for a return to a racially "pure" America. The keynote speaker was Fritz Kuhn, head of the German American Bund. Nazi Town, USA tells the largely unknown story of the Bund, a 1930s pro-Nazi group which had scores of chapters in suburbs and big cities across the country and represented what many believe was a real threat of fascist subversion in the United States. The Bund held joint rallies with the Ku Klux Klan and ran dozens of summer camps for children centered around Nazi ideology and imagery. Its melding of patriotic values with virulent anti-Semitism raised thorny issues that we continue to wrestle with today.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 35
+ American Experience #11  The War on Disco 31st Oct 2023 5 months ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 11 - "The War on Disco"
The War on Disco explores the culture war that erupted over the spectacular rise of disco music. Originating in underground Black and gay clubs, disco had unseated rock as America's most popular music by the late 1970s. But many diehard rock fans viewed disco, with its repetitive beat and culture that emphasized pleasure, as shallow and superficial. A story that's about much more than music, The War on Disco explores how the powerful anti-disco backlash revealed a cultural divide that to some seemed to be driven by racism and homophobia. The hostility came to a head on July 12, 1979, when a riot broke out at "Disco Demolition Night" during a baseball game in Chicago.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #10  The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's S... 13th Sep 2023 7 months ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 10 - "The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools"
In The Harvest, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Douglas A. Blackmon looks back at how school integration transformed his hometown of Leland, Mississippi. After the 1954 Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, little more than token efforts were made to desegregate Southern schools. That changed dramatically on October 29, 1969, when the high court ordered Mississippi schools to fully — and immediately — desegregate. As a result, a group of children, including six-year-old Blackmon, became part of the first class of Black and White children who would attend all 12 grades together in Leland.Set against vast historic and demographic changes unfolding across America, The Harvest follows a coalition of Black and white citizens working to create racially integrated public schools in a cotton town in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, the most rigidly segregated area in America. It tells the extraordinary story of how that first class became possible, then traces the lives of Blackmon and his classmates, teachers, and parents from the first day through high school graduation in 1982. It is a riveting portrait of how those children's lives were transformed and how the town — and America — were changed. But as the film follows the lives of those children into the present, it is also a portrait of what our society has lost in its failure to finish the work begun a generation ago.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #9  The Busing Battleground 12th Sep 2023 7 months ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 9 - "The Busing Battleground"
On September 12, 1974, police were stationed outside schools across Boston as Black and White students were bused for the first time between neighborhoods to comply with a federal court desegregation order. The cross-town busing was met with shocking violence, much of it directed at children: angry white protestors threw rocks at school buses carrying Black children and hurled racial epithets at the students as they walked into their new schools. The chaos and racial unrest would escalate and continue for years. Using eyewitness accounts, oral histories, and news footage that hasn't been seen in decades, The Busing Battleground pulls back the curtain on the volatile effort to end school segregation, detailing the decades-long struggle for educational equity that preceded the crisis. It illustrates how civil rights battles had to be fought across the North as well as the South and reckons with the class tensions and dimensions of the desegregation saga, exploring how the neighborhoods most impacted by the court's order were the poorest in the city.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #8  Casa Susanna 28th Jun 2023 9 months ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 8 - "Casa Susanna"
In the 1950s and '60s, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge at a modest house in the Catskills region of New York. Known as Casa Susanna, the house provided a safe place to express their true selves and live for a few days as they had always dreamed—dressed as and living as women without fear of being incarcerated or institutionalized for their self-expression. Told through the memories of those whose visits to the house would change their lives, the film provides a moving look back at a secret world where the persecuted and frightened found freedom, acceptance, and, often, the courage to live their lives out of the shadows.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #7  The Sun Queen 5th Apr 2023 1 year ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 7 - "The Sun Queen"
For nearly 50 years, biophysicist and inventor Mária Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to harnessing the sun's power. She designed and built the first successfully solar-powered house in 1949 but was perplexed by the knotty scientific challenge of developing a reliable and economical way to store captured solar energy. Telkes held more than 20 patents at the time of her death in 1995.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #6  The Movement and the "Madman" 29th Mar 2023 1 year ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 6 - "The Movement and the "Madman""
The Movement and the "Madman" shows how two antiwar protests in the fall of 1969 — the largest the country had ever seen — pressured President Nixon to cancel what he called his "madman" plans for a massive escalation of the U.S. war in Vietnam, including a threat to use nuclear weapons. At the time, protestors had no idea how influential they could be and how many lives they may have saved.Told through remarkable archival footage and firsthand accounts from movement leaders, Nixon administration officials, historians, and others, the film explores how the leaders of the antiwar movement mobilized disparate groups from coast to coast to create two massive protests that changed history.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #5  Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History 21st Feb 2023 1 year ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 5 - "Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History"
For generations, Monopoly has been America's favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and — for better or worse — the impulses that make our free-market society tick. But behind the myth of the game's creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession, and corporate double-dealing. Contrary to the folksy legend spread by Parker Brothers, Monopoly's secret history is a surprising saga that features a radical feminist, a community of Quakers in Atlantic City, America's greatest game company, and an unemployed Depression-era engineer. And the real story behind the creation of the game might never have come to light if it weren't for the determination of an economics professor and impassioned anti-monopolist.Part detective story, part sharp social commentary, and part pop-culture celebration, Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History presents the fascinating true story behind America's favorite game.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #4  Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space 18th Jan 2023 1 year ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 4 - "Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space"
Raised in the small all-Black Florida town of Eatonville, Zora Neale Hurston studied at Howard University before arriving in New York in 1925. She would soon become a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best remembered for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. But even as she gained renown in the Harlem literary circles, Hurston was also discovering anthropology at Barnard College with the renowned Franz Boas. She would make several trips to the American South and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural Black people and collecting their stories. She studied her own people, an unusual practice at the time, and during her lifetime, became known as the foremost authority on Black folklore. This episode is an in-depth biography of the influential author whose groundbreaking anthropological work would challenge assumptions about race, gender, and cultural superiority that had long defined the field in the 19th century.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #3  The Lie Detector 4th Jan 2023 1 year ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 3 - "The Lie Detector"
In the first decades of the 20th century, when scientific innovations were transforming life, researchers made a thrilling new claim: they could tell whether someone was lying by using a machine.Popularly known as the "lie detector," the device transformed police work, seized headlines, and was extolled in movies, TV, and comics as an infallible crime-fighting tool. Husbands and wives tested each other's fidelity. Corporations routinely tested employees' honesty, and government workers were tested for loyalty and "morals."But the promise of the polygraph turned dark, and the lie detector too often became an apparatus of fear and intimidation. Written and directed by Rob Rapley and executive produced by Cameo George, The Lie Detectoris a tale of good intentions, twisted morals, and unintended consequences.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #2  Taken Hostage: The Making of an American... 16th Nov 2022 1 year ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 2 - "Taken Hostage: The Making of an American Enemy, Part 2"
Unfolding like a political thriller, Taken Hostage tells the story of the Iran hostage crisis, when 52 American diplomats, Marines, and civilians were held hostage at the American Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. For the next 444 days, the world watched as the United States received a daily barrage of humiliation, vitriol, and hatred from a country that had long been one of our closest allies. Told through the candid, personal testimony of those whose lives were upended by the action, the crisis would transform both the U.S. and Iran and forever upend the focus and direction of American foreign policy.The film is told mainly through the lens of the remarkable love story of former hostage Barry Rosen and his wife Barbara, who was suddenly thrust into the public eye as the crisis dragged on. Other key figures are Hilary Brown and Carole Jerome, two pioneering female foreign correspondents who risked their lives to uncover the truth of what was happening in Iran; Gary Sick, a senior member of President Carter's national security team and longtime Iran expert; and Colonel James Q. Roberts, a member of the top-secret American commando unit, who recounts details of the failed attempt to rescue the hostages in a daring Special Forces operation. Taken Hostage uses their candid, personal testimonies to tell the story of these dramatic, history-making events.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #1  Taken Hostage: The Making of an American... 15th Nov 2022 1 year ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 35, Episode 1 - "Taken Hostage: The Making of an American Enemy, Part 1"
Unfolding like a political thriller, Taken Hostage tells the story of the Iran hostage crisis, when 52 American diplomats, Marines, and civilians were held hostage at the American Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. For the next 444 days, the world watched as the United States received a daily barrage of humiliation, vitriol, and hatred from a country that had long been one of our closest allies. Told through the candid, personal testimony of those whose lives were upended by the action, the crisis would transform both the U.S. and Iran and forever upend the focus and direction of American foreign policy.The film is told mainly through the lens of the remarkable love story of former hostage Barry Rosen and his wife Barbara, who was suddenly thrust into the public eye as the crisis dragged on. Other key figures are Hilary Brown and Carole Jerome, two pioneering female foreign correspondents who risked their lives to uncover the truth of what was happening in Iran; Gary Sick, a senior member of President Carter's national security team and longtime Iran expert; and Colonel James Q. Roberts, a member of the top-secret American commando unit, who recounts details of the failed attempt to rescue the hostages in a daring Special Forces operation. Taken Hostage uses their candid, personal testimonies to tell the story of these dramatic, history-making events.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 34
+ American Experience #7  Plague at the Golden Gate 25th May 2022 1 year ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 34, Episode 7 - "Plague at the Golden Gate"
Over 100 years before the deadly COVID-19 pandemic set off a nationwide wave of fear and anti-Asian sentiment, an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco's Chinatown unleashed a similar crisis. The death of a Chinese immigrant in 1900 would have likely gone unnoticed if a sharp-eyed medical officer hadn't discovered a swollen black lymph node on his body — evidence of one of the world's most feared diseases, bubonic plague. It was the first time in history that civilization's most feared disease, the infamous Black Death, made it to North America. When others started dying, health officials and business leaders were torn about how to stave off an epidemic without causing panic and derailing the city's booming economy. Two doctors — vastly different in temperament, training, and experience — used different methods to lead the seemingly impossible battle to contain the disease before it could engulf the country. In addition to overwhelming medical challenges, they faced unexpected opposition from business leaders, politicians, and even the President of the United States. Fueling the resistance would be a potent blend of political expediency, ignorance, greed, racism, and deep-rooted distrust of not only federal authority but science itself. Scapegoated as the source of the disease early on, the Chinese-American community fought back against unjust, discriminatory treatment. Based on David K. Randall's Black Death at the Golden Gate, the film features interviews with various medical experts, authors, and Asian-American historians.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #6  Flood in the Desert 4th May 2022 1 year ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 34, Episode 6 - "Flood in the Desert"
Just before midnight on March 12, 1928, about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, one of the biggest dams in the country blew apart, releasing a wall of water 20 stories high and causing the second deadliest disaster in California history. Ten thousand people lived downstream. Flood in the Desert tells the dramatic story of the St. Francis Dam disaster, which killed over 400 people and destroyed millions of dollars worth of property. The dam's collapse washed away the reputation of William Mulholland, the father of modern Los Angeles, and jeopardized more extensive plans to transform the West. A self-taught engineer, the 72-year-old Mulholland launched the city's remarkable growth by building both a cement aqueduct to pipe water 233 miles from the Owens Valley and Sierra Nevada Mountains across the Mojave Desert and the St. Francis Dam to hold a full year's supply of water for Los Angeles. Now, Mulholland was promoting a massive new project: the Hoover Dam. The collapse of the St. Francis Dam, the city's largest single reservoir, was a colossal engineering and human disaster that might have slowed the national project to tame the West. But within days, a concerted effort was underway to erase the dam's failure from popular memory. 
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #5  The American Diplomat 16th Feb 2022 2 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 34, Episode 5 - "The American Diplomat"
The American Diplomat explores the lives and legacies of three African American ambassadors — Edward Dudley, Terence Todman, and Carl Rowan — who pushed past historical and institutional racial barriers to reach high-ranking appointments in the Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy administrations. At the height of the civil rights movement in the United States, the three men were asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home. Oft reputed as "pale, male and Yale," the U.S. State Department fiercely maintained and cultivated the Foreign Service's elitist character and was one of the last federal agencies to desegregate. Through rare archival footage, in-depth oral histories, and interviews with family members, colleagues, and diplomats, the film paints a portrait of three men who left a lasting impact on the content and character of the Foreign Service and changed American diplomacy forever. Building lives of opportunity and influence, they advocated for a nation that did not always advocate for them. 
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #4  Riveted: The History of Jeans 8th Feb 2022 2 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 34, Episode 4 - "Riveted: The History of Jeans"
Riveted: The History of Jeans reveals the fascinating and surprising story of this iconic American garment. At any given moment, half the people on the planet are wearing them. They have become a staple of clothing the world over, worn by everyone from presidents and supermodels to farmers and artists. More than just an item of apparel, America's tangled past is woven into the indigo blue fabric. From its roots in slavery to its connection to the Wild West, youth culture, the civil rights movement, rock and roll, hippies, high fashion, and hip-hop, jeans are the canvas on which the history of American ideology and politics is writ large.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #3  Citizen Hearst: Part 2 29th Sep 2021 2 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 34, Episode 3 - "Citizen Hearst: Part 2"
In the 1930s, William Randolph Hearst's media empire included 28 newspapers, a movie studio, a syndicated wire service, radio stations, and 13 magazines. Nearly one in four American families read a Hearst publication. His newspapers were so influential that Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Winston Churchill all wrote for him. The first practitioner of what is now known as "synergy," Hearst used his media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power, then ran for office himself. After serving two terms in Congress, he came in second in the balloting for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1904. Perhaps best known as the inspiration for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and his lavish castle in San Simeon, Hearst died in 1951 at the age of 88, transforming the media's role in American life and politics. The two-part, four-hour film is based on historian David Nasaw's critically acclaimed biography, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 33
+ American Experience #8  Citizen Hearst: Part 2 29th Sep 2021 2 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 33, Episode 8 - "Citizen Hearst: Part 2"
In the 1930s, William Randolph Hearst's media empire included 28 newspapers, a movie studio, a syndicated wire service, radio stations, and 13 magazines. Nearly one in four American families read a Hearst publication. His newspapers were so influential that Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Winston Churchill all wrote for him. The first practitioner of what is now known as "synergy," Hearst used his media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power, then ran for office himself. After serving two terms in Congress, he came in second in the balloting for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1904. Perhaps best known as the inspiration for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and his lavish castle in San Simeon, Hearst died in 1951 at the age of 88, transforming the media's role in American life and politics. The two-part, four-hour film is based on historian David Nasaw's critically acclaimed biography, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 34
+ American Experience #2  Citizen Hearst: Part 1 28th Sep 2021 2 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 34, Episode 2 - "Citizen Hearst: Part 1"
In the 1930s, William Randolph Hearst's media empire included 28 newspapers, a movie studio, a syndicated wire service, radio stations, and 13 magazines. Nearly one in four American families read a Hearst publication. His newspapers were so influential that Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Winston Churchill all wrote for him. The first practitioner of what is now known as "synergy," Hearst used his media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power, then ran for office himself. After serving two terms in Congress, he came in second in the balloting for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1904. Perhaps best known as the inspiration for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and his lavish castle in San Simeon, Hearst died in 1951 at the age of 88, transforming the media's role in American life and politics. The two-part, four-hour film is based on historian David Nasaw's critically acclaimed biography, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 33
+ American Experience #7  Citizen Hearst: Part 1 28th Sep 2021 2 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 33, Episode 7 - "Citizen Hearst: Part 1"
In the 1930s, William Randolph Hearst's media empire included 28 newspapers, a movie studio, a syndicated wire service, radio stations, and 13 magazines. Nearly one in four American families read a Hearst publication. His newspapers were so influential that Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Winston Churchill all wrote for him. The first practitioner of what is now known as "synergy," Hearst used his media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power, then ran for office himself. After serving two terms in Congress, he came in second in the balloting for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1904. Perhaps best known as the inspiration for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and his lavish castle in San Simeon, Hearst died in 1951 at the age of 88, transforming the media's role in American life and politics. The two-part, four-hour film is based on historian David Nasaw's critically acclaimed biography, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 34
+ American Experience #1  Sandra Day O'Connor: The First 14th Sep 2021 2 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 34, Episode 1 - "Sandra Day O'Connor: The First"
When Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor as the Supreme Court's first female justice in 1981, the announcement dominated the news. Time Magazine's cover proclaimed "Justice At Last," and she received unanimous Senate approval. Born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas, O'Connor grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona in an era when women were expected to become homemakers. After graduating near the top of her class at Stanford Law School, she could not convince a single law firm to interview her, so she turned to volunteer work and public service. A Republican, she served two terms in the Arizona state senate, then became a judge on the state court of appeals. During her 25 years on the Supreme Court, O'Connor was the critical swing vote on cases involving some of the 20th century's most controversial issues, including race, gender, and reproductive rights — and she was the tiebreaker on Bush v. Gore. Forty years after her confirmation, this biography recounts the life of a pioneering woman who both reflected and shaped an era.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 33
+ American Experience #6  Sandra Day O'Connor: The First 14th Sep 2021 2 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 33, Episode 6 - "Sandra Day O'Connor: The First"
When Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor as the Supreme Court's first female justice in 1981, the announcement dominated the news. Time Magazine's cover proclaimed "Justice At Last," and she received unanimous Senate approval. Born in 1930 in El Paso, Texas, O'Connor grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona in an era when women were expected to become homemakers. After graduating near the top of her class at Stanford Law School, she could not convince a single law firm to interview her, so she turned to volunteer work and public service. A Republican, she served two terms in the Arizona state senate, then became a judge on the state court of appeals. During her 25 years on the Supreme Court, O'Connor was the critical swing vote on cases involving some of the 20th century's most controversial issues, including race, gender, and reproductive rights — and she was the tiebreaker on Bush v. Gore. Forty years after her confirmation, this biography recounts the life of a pioneering woman who both reflected and shaped an era.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #5  Billy Graham 18th May 2021 2 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 33, Episode 5 - "Billy Graham"
Billy Graham explores the life and career of one of the best-known and most influential Christian leaders of the 20th century. From modest beginnings on a North Carolina farm, Graham rose to prominence with a fiery preaching style, movie-star good looks, and effortless charm. His early fundamentalist sermons harnessed the apocalyptic anxieties of a post-atomic world, exhorting audiences to adopt the only possible solution: devoting one's life to Christ. Graham became an international celebrity by age 30 who built a media empire, preached to millions worldwide, and had the ear of tycoons, royalty, and presidents. At age 99, he died a national icon, estimated to have preached in person to 210 million people. Billy Graham examines the evangelist's extraordinary influence on American politics and culture, interweaving the voices of historians, scholars, witnesses, family, and Graham himself to create a kaleidoscopic portrait of a singular figure in the American experience.  
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #4  American Oz 20th Apr 2021 3 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 33, Episode 4 - "American Oz"
Explore the life and times of author L. Frank Baum, the creator of one of the most beloved, enduring, and classic American narratives. By 1900, when The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published, Baum was 44 years old and had spent much of his life in restless pursuit of success. With mixed results, he dove into a string of jobs — chicken breeder, actor, marketer of petroleum products, shopkeeper, newspaperman, and traveling salesman — Baum continued to reinvent himself, reflecting a uniquely American brand of confidence, imagination, and innovation. During his travels to the Great Plains and on to Chicago during the American frontier's final days, he witnessed a nation coming to terms with the economic uncertainty of the Gilded Age. But Baum never lost his childlike sense of wonder. Eventually, he crafted his observations into a magical tale of survival, adventure, and self-discovery, reinterpreted through the generations in films, books, and musicals.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #3  The Blinding of Isaac Woodard 31st Mar 2021 3 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 33, Episode 3 - "The Blinding of Isaac Woodard"
In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The shocking incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the blatant injustice would change the course of American history. Based on Richard Gergel's book Unexampled Courage, the film details how the crime led to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman, who desegregated federal offices and the military two years later. The event also ultimately set the stage for the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which finally outlawed segregation in public schools and jumpstarted the modern civil rights movement. 
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #2  Voice of Freedom 16th Feb 2021 3 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 33, Episode 2 - "Voice of Freedom"
On Easter Sunday, 1939, contralto Marian Anderson stepped up to a microphone in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Inscribed on the walls of the monument behind her were the words "all men are created equal." Barred from performing in Constitution Hall because of her race, Anderson would sing for the American people in the open air. Hailed as a voice that "comes around once in a hundred years" by maestros in Europe and widely celebrated by both white and black audiences at home, her fame hadn't been enough to spare her from the indignities and outright violence of racism and segregation. Voice of Freedom interweaves Anderson's rich life story with this landmark moment in history, exploring fundamental questions about talent, race, fame, democracy, and the American soul.
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+ American Experience #1  The Codebreaker 12th Jan 2021 3 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 33, Episode 1 - "The Codebreaker"
Based on the book The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies, The Codebreaker reveals the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst whose painstaking work to decode thousands of messages for the U.S. government would send infamous gangsters to prison in the 1930s and bring down a massive, near-invisible Nazi spy ring in WWII. Her remarkable contributions would come to light decades after her death, when secret government files were unsealed. But together with her husband, the legendary cryptologist William Friedman, Elizebeth helped develop the methods that led to the creation of the powerful new science of cryptology and laid the foundation for modern codebreaking today.
 
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Season 32
+ American Experience #9  The Vote: Part 2 8th Jul 2020 3 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 32, Episode 9 - "The Vote: Part 2"
Part Two examines the mounting dispute over strategy and tactics, and reveals how the pervasive racism of the time, particularly in the South, impacted women's fight for the vote. Explore the final four years of the long and arduous road to the passage of the 19th Amendment.
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+ American Experience #8  The Vote: Part 1 7th Jul 2020 3 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 32, Episode 8 - "The Vote: Part 1"
One hundred years after the passage of the 19th Amendment,The Votetells the dramatic culmination story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote, a transformative cultural and political movement that resulted in the most significant expansion of voting rights in U.S. history.In its final decade, from 1909 to 1920, movement leaders wrestled with contentious questions about the most effective methods for affecting social change. They debated the use of militant, even violent tactics, as well as hunger strikes and relentless public protests. The battle for the vote also upended previously accepted ideas about the proper role of women in American society and challenged the definitions of citizenship and democracy.Exploring how and why millions of 20th-century Americans mobilized for — and against — women's suffrage, The Vote brings to life the unsung leaders of the movement and the deep controversies over gender roles and race that divided Americans then — and continue to dominate political discourse today.
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+ American Experience #7  Mr. Tornado 20th May 2020 3 years ago 00:00 - 01:00 us Show
Season 32, Episode 7 - "Mr. Tornado"
The Super Outbreak of 1974 was the most intense tornado outbreak on record, tearing a vicious path of destruction across thirteen states, generating 148 tornadoes from Alabama to Ontario, damaging thousands of homes, and killing more than 300 people. Meteorologist Tetsuya Theodore "Ted" Fujita spent ten months studying the outbreak's aftermath in the most extensive aerial tornado study ever conducted and through detailed mapping and leaps of scientific imagination, made a series of meteorological breakthroughs.His discovery of "microbursts," sudden high wind patterns that could cause airplanes to drop from the sky without warning, transformed aviation safety and saved untold numbers of lives. Mr. Tornado is the remarkable story of the man whose groundbreaking work in research and applied science saved thousands of lives and helped Americans prepare for and respond to dangerous weather phenomena. 
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+ American Experience #6  George W. Bush: Part 2 6th May 2020 3 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 32, Episode 6 - "George W. Bush: Part 2"
Part Two opens with the ensuing war in Iraq and continues through Bush's second term, as the president confronts the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina and the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression.
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+ American Experience #5  George W. Bush: Part 1 5th May 2020 3 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 32, Episode 5 - "George W. Bush: Part 1"
Part One chronicles Bush's unorthodox road to the White House. The once wild son of a political dynasty, few expected Bush to ascend to the presidency. Yet 36 days after the November 2000 election, Bush emerged the victor of the most hotly contested race in the nation's history. Little in the new president's past could have prepared him for the events that unfolded on September 11, 2001. Thrust into the role of war president, Bush's response to the deadly terrorist attack would come to define a new era in American foreign policy.
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+ American Experience #4  The Man Who Tried to Feed the World 22nd Apr 2020 4 years ago 00:00 - 01:00 us Show
Season 32, Episode 4 - "The Man Who Tried to Feed the World"
In 1966, drought and an exploding population confronted India with the imminent threat of a severe famine that many scientists and intellectuals feared was a harbinger of global catastrophes to come, as the world's population outstripped its ability to produce food. India turned to Norman Borlaug, an unassuming plant breeder from Iowa whose combination of scientific knowledge and raw determination had made him a legend among a small handful of fellow specialists.The Man Who Tried to Feed the World recounts the story of the man who would not only solve India's famine problem but would go on to lead a "Green Revolution" of worldwide agriculture programs, saving countless lives. He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work but spent the rest of his life watching his methods and achievements come under increasing fire.
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+ American Experience #3  The Poison Squad 29th Jan 2020 4 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 32, Episode 3 - "The Poison Squad"
By the close of the Industrial Revolution, the American food supply was tainted with frauds, fakes, and legions of new and untested chemicals, dangerously threatening the health of consumers. Based on the book by Deborah Blum, The Poison Squad tells the story of government chemist Dr. Harvey Wiley who, determined to banish these dangerous substances from dinner tables, took on the powerful food manufacturers and their allies. Wiley embarked upon a series of bold and controversial trials on 12 human subjects who would become known as the "Poison Squad." Following Wiley's unusual experiments and tireless advocacy, the film charts the path of the forgotten man who laid the groundwork for U.S. consumer protection laws, and ultimately the creation of the FDA.
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+ American Experience #2  McCarthy 7th Jan 2020 4 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 32, Episode 2 - "McCarthy"
McCarthy chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican senator who came to power after a stunning victory in an election no one thought he could win. Once in office, he declared that there was a vast Communist conspiracy threatening America — emanating not from a rival superpower, but from within. Free of restraint or oversight, he conducted a crusade against those he accused of being enemies of the state, a chilling campaign marked by groundless accusations, bullying intimidation, grandiose showmanship, and cruel victimization. With lawyer Roy Cohn at his side, he belittled critics, spinning a web of lies and distortions while spreading fear and confusion. After years in the headlines, he was brought down by his own excesses and overreach. But his name lives on linked to the modern-day witch hunt we call "McCarthyism."
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+ American Experience #1  The Feud 11th Sep 2019 4 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 32, Episode 1 - "The Feud"
The feud between the Hatfields and McCoys is perhaps the most famous family conflict in American history. As legend has it, two neighboring families in the backwoods of Appalachia waged a crude and bloody war against each other over a stolen hog, an illicit romance, and longstanding grudges. Yet the events that took place near the end of the 19th century between the Hatfields and McCoys are part of a much richer and more complex narrative of the American experience.Anderson Hatfield and Randolph McCoy, the patriarchs of the legendary feud, were entrepreneurs seeking to climb up from hardship after fierce economic competition and rapid technological change had turned their lives upside down. When members of both families took their grievances to court, their dispute escalated into a war between two families and a struggle between two states. "The Feud" reveals more than an isolated story of mountain lust and violence between "hillbillies" — the Hatfield - McCoy feud was a microcosm of the tensions inherent in the nation's rapid industrialization after the Civil War.
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Season 31
+ American Experience #6  Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Gen... 7th Aug 2019 4 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 31, Episode 6 - "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"
In August 1969, nearly half a million people gathered at a farm in upstate New York to hear music. What happened over the next three days, however, was far more than a concert. It would become a legendary event, one that would define a generation and mark the end of one of the most turbulent decades in modern history. Occurring just weeks after an American set foot on the moon, the Woodstock music festival took place against a backdrop of a nation in conflict over sexual politics, civil rights, and the Vietnam War. A sense of an America in transition—a handoff of the country between generations with far different values and ideals—was tangibly present at what promoters billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music."Woodstock turns the lens back at the audience, at the swarming, impromptu city that grew up overnight on a few acres of farmland. What took place in that teeming mass of humanity — the rain-soaked, starving, tripping, half-a-million strong throng of young people — was nothing less than a miracle of teamwork, a manifestation of the "peace and love" the festival had touted and a validation of the counterculture's promise to the world. Who were these kids? What experiences and stories did they carry with them to Bethel, New York that weekend, and how were they changed by three days in the muck and mire of Yasgur's farm?
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+ American Experience #8  Chasing the Moon: Magnificent Desolation 11th Jul 2019 4 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 31, Episode 8 - "Chasing the Moon: Magnificent Desolation"
Part three, which covers 1969–1970, takes Americans to the moon and back. Dreams of space dramatically intersect with dreams of democracy on American soil, raising questions of national priorities and national identity. The final episode also considers what happens to scientific and engineering programs—and to a country—after ambitious national goals have been achieved."Chasing the Moon," a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses, and personal drama. Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material — much of which has never before been seen by the public — the film features a diverse cast of characters who played critical roles in these historic events. Among those included are astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Frank Borman and Bill Anders; Sergei Khrushchev, son of the former Soviet premier and a leading Soviet rocket engineer; Poppy Northcutt, a 25-year old "mathematics whiz" who gained worldwide attention as the first woman to serve in the all-male bastion of NASA's Mission Control; and Ed Dwight, the Air Force pilot selected by the Kennedy administration to train as America's first black astronaut.
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+ American Experience #5  Chasing the Moon: Magnificent Desolation 11th Jul 2019 4 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 31, Episode 5 - "Chasing the Moon: Magnificent Desolation"
Part three, which covers 1969–1970, takes Americans to the moon and back. Dreams of space dramatically intersect with dreams of democracy on American soil, raising questions of national priorities and national identity. The final episode also considers what happens to scientific and engineering programs—and to a country—after ambitious national goals have been achieved."Chasing the Moon," a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses, and personal drama. Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material — much of which has never before been seen by the public — the film features a diverse cast of characters who played critical roles in these historic events. Among those included are astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Frank Borman and Bill Anders; Sergei Khrushchev, son of the former Soviet premier and a leading Soviet rocket engineer; Poppy Northcutt, a 25-year old "mathematics whiz" who gained worldwide attention as the first woman to serve in the all-male bastion of NASA's Mission Control; and Ed Dwight, the Air Force pilot selected by the Kennedy administration to train as America's first black astronaut.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #7  Chasing the Moon: Earthrise 10th Jul 2019 4 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 31, Episode 7 - "Chasing the Moon: Earthrise"
Part two covers 1964–1968, four heady, dangerous years in the history of the space race, focusing on the events surrounding the Apollo 1 and Apollo 8 missions. As Americans moved through the 60s and reflect on the challenges ahead, many begin to wonder: What exactly is it going to take to beat the Soviets to the moon?"Chasing the Moon," a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses, and personal drama. Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material — much of which has never before been seen by the public — the film features a diverse cast of characters who played critical roles in these historic events. Among those included are astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Frank Borman and Bill Anders; Sergei Khrushchev, son of the former Soviet premier and a leading Soviet rocket engineer; Poppy Northcutt, a 25-year old "mathematics whiz" who gained worldwide attention as the first woman to serve in the all-male bastion of NASA's Mission Control; and Ed Dwight, the Air Force pilot selected by the Kennedy administration to train as America's first black astronaut.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #4  Chasing the Moon: Earthrise 10th Jul 2019 4 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 31, Episode 4 - "Chasing the Moon: Earthrise"
Part two covers 1964–1968, four heady, dangerous years in the history of the space race, focusing on the events surrounding the Apollo 1 and Apollo 8 missions. As Americans moved through the 60s and reflect on the challenges ahead, many begin to wonder: What exactly is it going to take to beat the Soviets to the moon?"Chasing the Moon," a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses, and personal drama. Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material — much of which has never before been seen by the public — the film features a diverse cast of characters who played critical roles in these historic events. Among those included are astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Frank Borman and Bill Anders; Sergei Khrushchev, son of the former Soviet premier and a leading Soviet rocket engineer; Poppy Northcutt, a 25-year old "mathematics whiz" who gained worldwide attention as the first woman to serve in the all-male bastion of NASA's Mission Control; and Ed Dwight, the Air Force pilot selected by the Kennedy administration to train as America's first black astronaut.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #3  Chasing the Moon: A Place Beyond the Sky 9th Jul 2019 4 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 31, Episode 3 - "Chasing the Moon: A Place Beyond the Sky"
Part one begins in 1957 and tracks the early years of the space race as the United States struggles to catch up with the Soviet Union. The episode reveals breathtaking failures and successes of the nascent American space program and demonstrates the stakes and costs of reaching the moon."Chasing the Moon," a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort. The series recasts the Space Age as a fascinating stew of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses, and personal drama. Utilizing a visual feast of previously overlooked and lost archival material — much of which has never before been seen by the public — the film features a diverse cast of characters who played critical roles in these historic events. Among those included are astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Frank Borman and Bill Anders; Sergei Khrushchev, son of the former Soviet premier and a leading Soviet rocket engineer; Poppy Northcutt, a 25-year old "mathematics whiz" who gained worldwide attention as the first woman to serve in the all-male bastion of NASA's Mission Control; and Ed Dwight, the Air Force pilot selected by the Kennedy administration to train as America's first black astronaut.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #2  Sealab 13th Feb 2019 5 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 31, Episode 2 - "Sealab"
On a February day in 1969, off the shore of northern California, a US Navy crane carefully lowered 300 tons of metal into the Pacific Ocean. The massive tubular structure was an audacious feat of engineering — a pressurized underwater habitat, complete with science labs and living quarters for an elite group of divers who hoped to spend days or even months at a stretch living and working on the ocean floor. The Sealab project, as it was known, was the brainchild of Captain George Bond, a country doctor turned naval pioneer who dreamed of pushing the limits of ocean exploration the same way NASA was pushing the limits of space exploration. As Americans were becoming entranced with the effort to land a man on the moon, these Navy "Aquanauts," including one of NASA's most famous astronauts, Scott Carpenter, were breaking depth barrier records underwater. "Sealab" tells the little-known story of the daring program that tested the limits of human endurance and revolutionized the way humans explore the ocean.
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+ American Experience #1  The Swamp 16th Jan 2019 5 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 31, Episode 1 - "The Swamp"
The Swamp tells the dramatic story of humanity's attempts to conquer the Florida Everglades, one of nature's most mysterious and unique ecosystems. Home to a profusion of plants and animals found nowhere else on the continent, the Everglades was an immense watershed covering the southern half of the Florida peninsula. In the 19th century, however, most Americans believed swamps were filled with diseases and noxious reptiles and saw them as obstacles to the nation's progress. The idea of draining the Everglades became the goal of many entrepreneurs, politicians and salesmen who saw great potential in turning the massive wetland into a profitable enterprise. Altering the landscape of the Everglades unleashed a torrent of unintended consequences, from catastrophic floods to brutal droughts. Told through the lives of a handful of colorful and resolute characters, from hucksters to politicians to unlikely activists, The Swamp explores the repeated efforts to transform what was seen as a vast and useless wasteland into an agricultural and urban paradise, ultimately leading to a passionate campaign to preserve America's greatest wetland.
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Season 30
+ American Experience #8  The Eugenics Crusade: What's Wrong with ... 17th Oct 2018 5 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 30, Episode 8 - "The Eugenics Crusade: What's Wrong with Perfect?"
A hybrid derived from the Greek words meaning "well" and "born," the term eugenics was coined in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton, a British cousin to Charles Darwin, to name a new "science" through which human beings might take charge of their own evolution. The Eugenics Crusade tells the story of the unlikely –– and largely unknown –– campaign to breed a "better" American race, tracing the rise of the movement that turned the fledgling scientific theory of heredity into a powerful instrument of social control. Perhaps more surprising still, American eugenics was neither the work of fanatics nor the product of fringe science. The goal of the movement was simple and, to its disciples, laudable: to eradicate social ills by limiting the number of those considered to be genetically "unfit" –– a group that would expand to include many immigrant groups, the poor, Jews, the mentally and physically disabled, and the "morally delinquent." At its peak in the 1920s, the movement was in every way mainstream, packaged as a progressive quest for "healthy babies." Its doctrines were not only popular and practiced, but codified by laws that severely restricted immigration and ultimately led to the institutionalization and sterilization of tens of thousands of American citizens. Populated by figures both celebrated and obscure, The Eugenics Crusade is an often revelatory portrait of an America at once strange and eerily familiar.
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+ American Experience #7  The Circus: Part 2 10th Oct 2018 5 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 30, Episode 7 - "The Circus: Part 2"
This four-hour mini-series tells the story of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in American history. Through the intertwined stories of several of the most innovative and influential impresarios of the late nineteenth century, this series reveals the circus was a uniquely American entertainment created by a rapidly expanding and industrializing nation; that it embraced and was made possible by Western imperialism; that its history was shaped by a tension between its unconventional entertainments and prevailing standards of respectability; and that its promise for ordinary people was the possibility for personal reinvention. For many Americans, the circus embodied the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular. Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, The Circus follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country. It explores the colorful history of this popular, influential and distinctly American form of entertainment, from the first one-ring show at the end of the 18th century to 1956, when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big top was pulled down for the last time.
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+ American Experience #6  The Circus: Part 1 9th Oct 2018 5 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 30, Episode 6 - "The Circus: Part 1"
This four-hour mini-series tells the story of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in American history. Through the intertwined stories of several of the most innovative and influential impresarios of the late nineteenth century, this series reveals the circus was a uniquely American entertainment created by a rapidly expanding and industrializing nation; that it embraced and was made possible by Western imperialism; that its history was shaped by a tension between its unconventional entertainments and prevailing standards of respectability; and that its promise for ordinary people was the possibility for personal reinvention. For many Americans, the circus embodied the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular. Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, The Circus follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus and brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town and its stars were among the most famous people in the country. It explores the colorful history of this popular, influential and distinctly American form of entertainment, from the first one-ring show at the end of the 18th century to 1956, when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big top was pulled down for the last time.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #5  The Chinese Exclusion Act 30th May 2018 5 years ago 00:00 - 01:00 us Show
Season 30, Episode 5 - "The Chinese Exclusion Act"
Examine the origin, history, and impact of the 1882 law that made it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America and for Chinese nationals already here ever to become U.S. citizens. The first in a long line of acts targeting the Chinese for exclusion, it remained in force for more than 60 years.
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+ American Experience #4  The Bombing of Wall Street 14th Feb 2018 6 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 30, Episode 4 - "The Bombing of Wall Street"
On September 16, 1920, as hundreds of Wall Street workers headed out for lunch, a horse-drawn cart packed with dynamite exploded in front of Morgan Bank - the world's most powerful banking institution. The blast turned the nation's financial center into a bloody war zone and left 38 dead and hundreds more seriously injured. As financial institutions around the country went on high alert, many wondered if this was the strike against American capitalism that radical agitators had threatened for so long. A mostly forgotten act of terror that remains unsolved today, the bombing helped launch the career of a young J. Edgar Hoover and sparked a bitter national debate about how far the government should go to protect the nation from acts of political violence. Based on Beverly Gage's The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror.
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+ American Experience #3  The Gilded Age 7th Feb 2018 6 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 30, Episode 3 - "The Gilded Age"
Gilded is not golden. In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, during what has become known as the Gilded Age, the population of the United States doubled in the span of a single generation. The nation became the world's leading producer of food, coal, oil, and steel, attracted vast amounts of foreign investment, and pushed into markets in Europe and the Far East. As national wealth expanded, two classes rose simultaneously, separated by a gulf of experience and circumstance that was unprecedented in American life. These disparities sparked passionate and violent debate over questions still being asked in our own times: How is wealth best distributed, and by what process? Does government exist to protect private property or provide balm to the inevitable casualties of a churning industrial system? Should the government concern itself chiefly with economic growth or economic justice? The battles over these questions were fought in Congress, the courts, the polling place, the workplace and the streets. The outcome of these disputes was both uncertain and momentous and marked by a passionate vitriol and level of violence that would shock the conscience of many Americans today. "The Gilded Age" presents a compelling and complex story of one of the most convulsive and transformative eras in American history. Meet the titans and barons of the glittering late 19th century, whose materialistic extravagance contrasted harshly with the poverty of the struggling workers who challenged them. The vast disparities between them sparked debates still raging today.
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+ American Experience #2  The Secret of Tuxedo Park 17th Jan 2018 6 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 30, Episode 2 - "The Secret of Tuxedo Park"
In the fall of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered a small team of scientists on a clandestine transatlantic mission to deliver his country's most valuable military secret — a revolutionary radar component — not to the U.S. government, but to a mysterious Wall Street tycoon, Alfred Lee Loomis. Using his connections, his money, and his brilliant scientific mind, Loomis and his team of scientists developed radar technology that would arguably play a more decisive role than any other weapon in the war. The Secret of Tuxedo Park tells a long-overlooked story of an individual who helped alter the course of history in World War II.
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+ American Experience #1  Into the Amazon 10th Jan 2018 6 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 30, Episode 1 - "Into the Amazon"
Into the Amazon tells the remarkable story of the journey taken by President Theodore Roosevelt and legendary Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon into the heart of the South American rainforest to chart an unexplored tributary of the Amazon. Two of the most celebrated men from their respective nations, Roosevelt and Rondon set out with twenty other adventurers in 1914. Over eight eventful weeks in one of the most remote places on earth, the ill-equipped expedition navigated deadly rapids in crude dugout canoes. Hunger and exhaustion were compounded by the rainforest's unforgiving topography, which forced the men to carry heavy canoes long distances. What was anticipated to be a relatively tranquil journey turned out to be a brutal test of courage and character. Before it was all over, one member of the expedition had drowned and another had committed murder. Roosevelt would badly injure his leg and beg to be left behind to die. More than a dramatic adventure story, Into the Amazon shines a light on two of the western hemisphere's most formidable men, and the culture and politics of their two formidable nations.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 29
+ American Experience #8  The Great War: Part 3 13th Apr 2017 7 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 29, Episode 8 - "The Great War: Part 3"
Drawing on the latest scholarship, including unpublished diaries, memoirs and letters, "The Great War" tells the rich and complex story of World War I through the voices of nurses, journalists, aviators and the American troops who came to be known as "doughboys." The series explores the experiences of African-American and Latino soldiers, suffragists, Native American "code talkers" and others whose participation in the war to "make the world safe for democracy" has been largely forgotten. The Great War explores how a brilliant PR man bolstered support for the war in a country hesitant to put lives on the line for a foreign conflict; how President Woodrow Wilson steered the nation through years of neutrality, only to reluctantly lead America into the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen, thereby transforming the United States into a dominant player on the international stage; and how the ardent patriotism and determination to support America's crusade for liberty abroad led to one of the most oppressive crackdowns on civil liberties at home in U.S. history. It is a story of heroism and sacrifice that would ultimately claim 15 million lives and profoundly change the world forever. Part 3 of 3
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #7  The Great War: Part 2 12th Apr 2017 7 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 29, Episode 7 - "The Great War: Part 2"
Drawing on the latest scholarship, including unpublished diaries, memoirs and letters, "The Great War" tells the rich and complex story of World War I through the voices of nurses, journalists, aviators and the American troops who came to be known as "doughboys." The series explores the experiences of African-American and Latino soldiers, suffragists, Native American "code talkers" and others whose participation in the war to "make the world safe for democracy" has been largely forgotten. The Great War explores how a brilliant PR man bolstered support for the war in a country hesitant to put lives on the line for a foreign conflict; how President Woodrow Wilson steered the nation through years of neutrality, only to reluctantly lead America into the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen, thereby transforming the United States into a dominant player on the international stage; and how the ardent patriotism and determination to support America's crusade for liberty abroad led to one of the most oppressive crackdowns on civil liberties at home in U.S. history. It is a story of heroism and sacrifice that would ultimately claim 15 million lives and profoundly change the world forever. Part 2 of 3
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #6  The Great War: Part 1 11th Apr 2017 7 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 29, Episode 6 - "The Great War: Part 1"
Drawing on the latest scholarship, including unpublished diaries, memoirs and letters, "The Great War" tells the rich and complex story of World War I through the voices of nurses, journalists, aviators and the American troops who came to be known as "doughboys." The series explores the experiences of African-American and Latino soldiers, suffragists, Native American "code talkers" and others whose participation in the war to "make the world safe for democracy" has been largely forgotten. The Great War explores how a brilliant PR man bolstered support for the war in a country hesitant to put lives on the line for a foreign conflict; how President Woodrow Wilson steered the nation through years of neutrality, only to reluctantly lead America into the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen, thereby transforming the United States into a dominant player on the international stage; and how the ardent patriotism and determination to support America's crusade for liberty abroad led to one of the most oppressive crackdowns on civil liberties at home in U.S. history. It is a story of heroism and sacrifice that would ultimately claim 15 million lives and profoundly change the world forever. Part 1 of 3
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #5  Ruby Ridge 15th Feb 2017 7 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 29, Episode 5 - "Ruby Ridge"
Shortly before dawn on August 21, 1992, six heavily armed U.S. marshals made their way up to the isolated mountaintop home of Randy and Vicki Weaver and their children on Ruby Ridge in Northern Idaho. Charged with selling two illegal sawed-off shotguns to an undercover agent, Weaver had failed to appear in court and law enforcement was tasked with bringing him in. For months, the Weavers had been holed up on their property with a cache of firearms, including automatic weapons. When the federal agents surveilling the property crossed paths with members of the family, a firefight broke out. The standoff that mesmerized the nation would leave Weaver injured, his wife and son dead, and some convinced that the federal government was out of control. Drawing upon eyewitness accounts, including interviews with Weaver's daughter, Sara, and federal agents involved in the confrontation, Ruby Ridge is a riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern American militia movement.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #4  Oklahoma City 8th Feb 2017 7 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 29, Episode 4 - "Oklahoma City"
On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a former soldier deeply influenced by the literature and ideas of the radical right, parked a Ryder truck with a five-ton fertilizer bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Moments later, 168 people were killed, and 675 were injured in the blast. Oklahoma City traces the events — including the deadly encounters between American citizens and law enforcement at Ruby Ridge and Waco — that led McVeigh to commit the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. With a virulent strain of anti-government anger still with us, the film is both a cautionary tale and an extremely timely warning. 
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #3  The Race Underground 1st Feb 2017 7 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 29, Episode 3 - "The Race Underground"
In the late 19th century, as America's teeming cities grew increasingly congested, the time had come to replace the nostalgic horse-drawn trolleys with a faster, cleaner, safer, and more efficient form of transportation. Ultimately, it was Boston — a city of so many firsts — that overcame a litany of engineering challenges, the greed-driven interests of businessmen, and the great fears of its citizenry to construct America's first subway. Based in part on Doug Most's acclaimed book of the same name, The Race Underground tells the dramatic story of an invention that changed the lives of millions.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #2  Rachel Carson 25th Jan 2017 7 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 29, Episode 2 - "Rachel Carson"
When Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962, the book became a phenomenon. A passionate and eloquent warning about the long-term dangers of pesticides, the book unleashed an extraordinary national debate and was greeted by vigorous attacks from the chemical industry. But it would also inspire President John F. Kennedy to launch the first-ever investigation into the public health effects of pesticides — an investigation that would eventually result in new laws governing the regulation of these deadly agents.Featuring the voice of Mary-Louise Parker as the influential writer and scientist, Rachel Carson is an intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. Drawn from Carson's own writings, letters and recent scholarship, this film illuminates both the public and private life of the woman who launched the modern environmental movement and revolutionized how we understand our relationship with the natural world.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #1  Command and Control 11th Jan 2017 7 years ago 02:30 - 03:30 us Show
Season 29, Episode 1 - "Command and Control"
From Robert Kenner, the director of the groundbreaking film Food, Inc., comes "Command and Control," the long-hidden story of a deadly accident at a Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas, in 1980. Based on the critically-acclaimed book by Eric Schlosser, this chilling documentary exposes the terrifying truth about the management of America's nuclear arsenal and shows what can happen when the weapons built to protect us threaten to destroy us. Filmed in a decommissioned Titan II missile silo in Arizona, the documentary features the minute-by-minute accounts of Air Force personnel, weapon designers, and first responders who were on the scene that night. "Command and Control" reveals the unlikely chain of events that caused the accident and the feverish efforts to prevent the explosion of a ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead ever built by the United States – a warhead 600 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.Woven through the Damascus story is a riveting history of America's nuclear weapons program, from World War II through the Cold War, much of it based on recently declassified documents. A cautionary tale of freak accidents, near misses, human fallibility, and extraordinary heroism, "Command and Control" forces viewers to confront the great dilemma that the U.S. has faced since the dawn of the nuclear age: how do you manage weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them?
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 28
+ American Experience #8  The Battle of Chosin 2nd Nov 2016 7 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 28, Episode 8 - "The Battle of Chosin"
On Thanksgiving Day 1950, American-led United Nations troops were on the march in North Korea. U.S. Marine and Air Force pilots distributed holiday meals, even to those on the front lines. Hopes were high that everyone would be home by Christmas. But soon after that peaceful celebration, American military leaders, including General Douglas MacArthur, were caught off guard by the entrance of the People's Republic of China, led by Mao Zedong, into the five-month-old Korean War. Twelve thousand men of the First Marine Division, along with a few thousand Army soldiers, suddenly found themselves surrounded, outnumbered and at risk of annihilation at the Chosin Reservoir, high in the mountains of North Korea. The two-week battle that followed, fought in brutally cold temperatures, is one of the most celebrated in Marine Corps annals and helped set the course of American foreign policy in the Cold War and beyond. Incorporating interviews with more than 20 veterans of the campaign, "The Battle of Chosin" recounts this epic conflict through the heroic stories of the men who fought it.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #7  Tesla 19th Oct 2016 7 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 28, Episode 7 - "Tesla"
Meet Nikola Tesla, the genius engineer and tireless inventor whose technology revolutionized the electrical age of the 20th century. Regarded by many historians as an eccentric genius, Tesla gained international fame for his invention of a system of alternating current that made possible the distribution of electricity over vast distances and is the basis for the electrical grid that powers 21st-century life. But the visionary Tesla imagined much more — robots, radio, radar, remote control, the wireless transmission of messages and pictures, and harnessing the wind and sun to provide free energy to all. A showman, he dazzled his scientific peers who flocked to see him demonstrate his inventions and send thousands of volts of electricity pulsing through his body. His fertile but undisciplined imagination was the source of his genius but also his downfall, as the image of Tesla as a "mad scientist" came to overshadow his reputation as a brilliant innovator. Even before his death in 1943, he was largely forgotten, his name obscured by Thomas Edison — his hero, one-time employer, and rival. But it is his exhilarating sense of the future that has inspired renewed interest in the man, as his once scoffed-at vision of a world connected by wireless technology has become a reality.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #6  The Boys of '36 3rd Aug 2016 7 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 28, Episode 6 - "The Boys of '36"
The story of nine working-class young men from the University of Washington who took the rowing world and America by storm when they captured the gold medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Their unexpected victory, against not only the Ivy League teams of the East Coast but Adolf Hitler's elite German rowers, gave hope to a nation struggling to emerge from the depths of the Great Depression.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #5  Space Men 2nd Mar 2016 8 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 28, Episode 5 - "Space Men"
In the late 1940s, the notion of space travel lived squarely in the realm of science fiction. But a young Army doctor named John Paul Stapp saw no limit to how far mankind could go—he had his eyes set on the heavens. By the 1950s and early '60s, a small band of high-altitude pioneers exposed themselves to the extreme forces of space, long before NASA's acclaimed Mercury 7 would make headlines. U.S. Air Force pilots and scientists lay the groundwork for the U.S. space program through Project Manhigh between 1955 and 1958. With a fraction of NASA's budget and none of its renown, Stapp's Project Excelsior would send Captain Joseph Kittinger to a record-breaking 102,800 feet above Earth on August 16, 1960, lifted not by rocket, but by balloon. Though largely forgotten, this group of daring explorers would be the first to venture into the frozen vacuum on the edge of our world, testing the very limits of human physiology and ingenuity in this deadly realm.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #4  The Perfect Crime 10th Feb 2016 8 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 28, Episode 4 - "The Perfect Crime"
When Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two well-educated college students from a wealthy suburb of Chicago, confessed to the brutal murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks, the story made headlines across the country. The unlikely killers not only admitted their guilt, but also bragged that they had committed the crime simply for the thrill of it. As the sensational case unfolded during the summer of 1924, with famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow and Cook County Prosecutor Robert Crowe debating the death penalty and scores of commentators weighing in from the sidelines, the question of motive would be turned over and over again. What first seemed like a simple matter of evil gradually would give way to a complex assessment of the murderers' minds and a searing indictment of the forces that had shaped them, and set off a national debate about morality and capital punishment.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #3  Murder of a President 3rd Feb 2016 8 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 28, Episode 3 - "Murder of a President"
Explore James Garfield's unprecedented rise to power, his shooting by a madman and its bizarre and tragic aftermath. Based on the best-seller Destiny of the Republic, the story follows the life of one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #2  The Mine Wars 27th Jan 2016 8 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 28, Episode 2 - "The Mine Wars"
Go inside the bitter battle to unionize coal miners at the dawn of the 20th century. Coal was the fuel that powered the nation. Yet few Americans thought much about the men who blasted the black rock from underground and hauled it to the surface. The Mine Wars tells the overlooked story of the miners in the mountains of southern West Virginia — native mountaineers, African American migrants, and European immigrants — who came together in a protracted struggle for their rights. Decades of violence, strikes, assassinations, and marches accompanied their attempts to form a union, culminating in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War. The West Virginia mine wars raised profound questions about what freedom and democracy meant to working people in an industrial society.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #1  Bonnie & Clyde 20th Jan 2016 8 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 28, Episode 1 - "Bonnie & Clyde"
Discover the true story of the most famous outlaw couple in US history. Though their exploits were romanticized, the Barrow gang was believed responsible for at least 13 murders, including two policemen, as well as robberies and kidnappings.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 27
+ American Experience #11  The Pilgrims 25th Nov 2015 8 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 11 - "The Pilgrims"
Arguably one of the most fateful and resonant events of the last half millennium, the Pilgrims journey west across the Atlantic in the early 17th century is a seminal, if often misunderstood episode of American and world history. The Pilgrims explores the forces, circumstances, personalities, and events that converged to exile the English group in Holland and eventually propelled their crossing to the New World - a story universally familiar in broad outline, but almost entirely unfamiliar to a general audience in its rich and compelling historical actuality.Discover the harrowing and brutal truths behind the Pilgrims' arrival in the New World and the myths of Thanksgiving. Director Ric Burns explores the history of our nation's beginnings in this epic tale of converging forces.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #10  American Comandante 18th Nov 2015 8 years ago 02:00 - 03:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 10 - "American Comandante"
Meet William Morgan, the larger-than-life American who rose to power in Cuba during the revolution.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #9  Walt Disney: Part 2 16th Sep 2015 8 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 9 - "Walt Disney: Part 2"
Walt Disney's life and legacy, from "Cinderella" to "Mary Poppins" and his vision and realization of Disneyland.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #8  Walt Disney: Part 1 15th Sep 2015 8 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 8 - "Walt Disney: Part 1"
The life and legacy of filmmaker and animator Walt Disney, from his creation of Mickey Mouse through the making of ``Snow White,'' the first full-length animated film.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #7  Blackout 15th Jul 2015 8 years ago 00:00 - 01:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 7 - "Blackout"
As Wednesday, July 13, 1977 dawned hot and humid, New Yorkers prepared themselves for another sweltering day. It was the first day of a nine-day heat wave that would become the hottest in New York City history. The once-booming city had been suffering years of economic decline. It was on the verge of bankruptcy; both unemployment rates and crime rates were high; police and firefighters had been laid off; municipal services, including sanitation and after-school programs, had been cut; and a serial killer named Son of Sam was still on the loose, keeping everyone on edge.When a severe thunderstorm hit, the lights went out, and some eight million people plunged into darkness in New York City and surrounding areas. By the time the power was fully restored more than a day later, more than 1,600 businesses had been looted, more than 3,000 people had been arrested, and firefighters had battled more than 1,000 fires. The affected neighborhoods would never be the same.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #6  Last Days in Vietnam 29th Apr 2015 8 years ago 00:00 - 01:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 6 - "Last Days in Vietnam"
During the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese forces closed in on Saigon as South Vietnamese resistance quickly crumbled. With the specter of a Communist victory looming and only a skeleton crew of diplomats and military operatives still in the country, the United States prepared to withdraw. As they began to realize the likely imprisonment and possible death of their South Vietnamese allies, American diplomats and soldiers confronted a moral quandary: obey White House orders to evacuate only U.S. citizens, or risk being charged with treason and save the lives of as many South Vietnamese citizens as they can. With time running out and the city under fire, an unlikely group of heroes emerged as Americans and South Vietnamese took matters into their own hands.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #5  The Forgotten Plague 11th Feb 2015 9 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 5 - "The Forgotten Plague"
By the dawn of the 19th century, the deadliest killer in human history, tuberculosis, had killed one in seven of all the people who had ever lived. The disease struck America with a vengeance, ravaging communities and touching the lives of almost every family. The battle against the deadly bacteria had a profound and lasting impact on the country. It shaped medical and scientific pursuits, social habits, economic development, western expansion, and government policy. Yet both the disease and its impact are poorly understood: in the words of one writer, tuberculosis is our "forgotten plague."
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #4  The Big Burn 4th Feb 2015 9 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 4 - "The Big Burn"
In the spring of 1905, the first group of fresh-faced graduates of Yale's Forestry School began to arrive in the bawdy frontier towns of the West. These first employees of the Forest Service were given the monumental task of managing the newly created national forests in the Northern Rockies. Nothing could have prepared them for the severity of the drought there in 1910. Hundreds of wildfires broke out continually and were fought by the rookie rangers as best they could. In mid-August, the particularly destructive fire season hit its peak: in just 36 hours, a firestorm burned more than three million acres and killed at least 78 firefighters, confronting the fledgling U.S. Forest Service with a catastrophe that would define the agency and the nation's fire policy for much of the twentieth century. It was the largest fire in American history.Inspired by Timothy Egan's best-selling book, "The Big Burn" provides a cautionary tale of heroism and sacrifice, arrogance and greed, hubris and, ultimately, humility, in the face of nature's frightening power.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #3  Edison 28th Jan 2015 9 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 3 - "Edison"
By the time he died in 1931, Thomas Edison was one of the most famous men in the world. The holder of more patents than any other inventor in history, Edison had amassed a fortune and achieved glory as the genius behind such revolutionary inventions as sound recording, motion pictures, and electric light. When Edison died on October 18, he lay in state for two days in the library of his West Orange complex, as thousands of people lined up to pay their final respects. On the third night, at the request of President Herbert Hoover, radio listeners across the country switched off their lights as a reminder of what life would have been like without Edison.Edison explores the complex alchemy that accounts for the enduring celebrity of America's most famous inventor, offering new perspectives on the man and his milieu, and illuminating not only the true nature of invention, but its role in turn-of-the-century America's rush into the future.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #2  Klansville, USA 14th Jan 2015 9 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 2 - "Klansville, USA"
In the 1960s, North Carolina's KKK membership grew to some ten thousand members, earning the state a new nickname: "Klansville, U.S.A."
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #1  Ripley: Believe It or Not 7th Jan 2015 9 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 27, Episode 1 - "Ripley: Believe It or Not"
Robert Ripley's obsession with the odd and keen eye for the curious made him one of the most successful men in America during the Great Depression, transforming himself from a skinny loner into a flashy entertainer who presented to the nation a blend of freakish oddities, colorful exotica, and homespun Americana. Over three decades, his Believe It or Not! franchise grew into an entertainment empire, expanding from newspapers to radio, film and, ultimately, television. Americans not only loved his bizarre fare, but were fascinated by the man himself, and the eccentric, globetrotting playboy became an unlikely national celebrity. This is the story of the man who popularized the iconic phrase, and proof of why we still can't resist his challenge to "Believe it — or not!"
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
Season 26
+ American Experience #7  Cold War Roadshow 19th Nov 2014 9 years ago 01:00 - 02:00 us Show
Season 26, Episode 7 - "Cold War Roadshow"
Cold War Roadshowtells the story of one of the most bizarre episodes in the annals of modern history — the unprecedented barnstorming across America in the fall of 1959 by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the world leader of communism and America's arch nemesis. At the very height of the Cold War, with American schoolchildren practicing duck-and-cover drills, the man who Americans feared could incinerate them in a rain of hydrogen bombs arrived in Washington, D.C. at the invitation of President Eisenhower. For both men, the visit was an opportunity to halt the escalating threats of the Cold War and chart a new course toward peaceful coexistence. For the American press, it was the media blockbuster story of the year.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
+ American Experience #6  Freedom Summer 25th Jun 2014 9 years ago 00:00 - 01:00 us Show
Season 26, Episode 6 - "Freedom Summer"
A historic effort in the summer of 1964 to shatter the foundations of white supremacy in what was one of the nation's most viciously racist, segregated states.In 1964, less than 7% of Mississippi's African Americans were registered to vote, compared to between 50 and 70% in other southern states. In many rural counties, African Americans made up the majority of the population, and the white segregationist establishment was prepared to use any means necessary to keep them away from the polls and out of elected office.For years, local civil rights workers had tried unsuccessfully to increase voter registration amongst African Americans. Those who wished to vote had to face the local registrar, an all-powerful white functionary who would often publish their names in the paper and pass the word on to their employers and bankers. And if the loss of jobs and the threat of violence wasn't enough to dissuade them, the complex and arcane testing policies were certain to keep them off the rolls.In 1964, a new plan was hatched by Bob Moses, a local secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. For ten weeks, white students from the North would join activists on the ground for a massive effort that would do what had been impossible so far: force the media and the country to take notice of the shocking violence and massive injustice taking place in Mississippi.
Type: Documentary | Network: PBS | Status: Running | Rating: unrated [ Login to vote ]
 
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