American Experience

S1 • E1

The Great San Francisco Earthquake

An account of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the subsequent effort to rebuild.

S1 • E2

Radio Bikini

It starts with a live radio broadcast from the Bikini Atoll a few days before it is annihilated by a nuclear test. Shows great footage from these times and tells the story of the US Navy Sailors who were exposed to radioactive fallout. One interviewed sailor suffered grotesquely swollen limbs and he is shown being interviewed with enormous left arm and hand.

S1 • E3

Indians, Outlaws and Angie Debo

A profile of historian Angie Debo and her exposure of the governmental conspiracy to steal mineral-rich lands from their tribal owners.

S1 • E4

Eric Sevareid's Not So Wild a Dream

Journalist Eric Sevareid recounts his experiences growing up during the Great Depression and World War II.

S1 • E5

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter

S1 • E6

Do You Mean There Are Still Real Cowboys?

A look at modern-day cowboys in the Wyoming Rockies.

S1 • E7

Kennedy vs. Wallace: A Crisis Up Close

Filmmaker Robert Drew updates his 1963 documentary Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963) which followed the confrontation between President Kennedy and Alabama governor George Wallace.

S1 • E8

Geronimo and the Apache Resistance

The life of Geronimo, as told by the Chiricahua Apaches.

S1 • E9

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Revisited

Writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans revisit the Alabama tenant system depicted in their 1936 book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men".

S1 • E10

That Rhythm, Those Blues

A documentary covering the R&B (rhythm and blues) field from the 1940s to the early 1950s. Included is footage of performances by major R&B singers of the time, and interviews with singers, producers and others involved in the field.

S1 • E11

The Radio Priest

The story of Father Charles Coughlin who, during the Depression, used the radio to protest against what he saw as society's ills.

S1 • E12

Hearts and Hands

The historical events of nineteenth-century America as depicted in the quilts of the country's women.

S1 • E13

Views of a Vanishing Frontier

An exploration of the Native Americans of 1830s western America, as seen through the eyes of European travelers Prince Maximilian of Bavaria and Swiss artist Karl Bodmer.

S1 • E14

Eudora Welty: One Writer's Beginnings

A profile on American writer Eudora Welty.

S1 • E15

The World That Moses Built

Documentary about architect Robert Moses who is responsible for public works projects like the Lincoln Center and the United Nations in New York.

S1 • E16

Sins of Our Mothers: The Story of Emeline

The story of Emeline Bachelder, an early 19th-century New Englander who married a younger man - only to discover that he was the son she had give up when she was fourteen.