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American Experience Season 23 Episodes
Season 23 Episode Guide
14 Episodes 2010 - 2011
Episode 1
God in America: A New Adam (1) & A New Eden (2)
Tue, Oct 12, 2010
God in America: A New Adam (1) and A New Eden (2) : A New Adam explores the origins of Christian religion in America and examines how the New World changed the faiths that the settlers brought with them. A New Eden explores how an unlikely alliance between evangelical Baptists and enlightenment figures such as Thomas Jefferson served as the foundation of American religious liberty.
Episode 2
God in America: A Nation Reborn (3) & A New Light (4)
Tue, Oct 12, 2010
God in America: A Nation Reborn (3) and A New Light (4): During the 19th century, the forces of modernity challenged traditional faith and drove a wedge between liberal and conservative believers. "A Nation Reborn" explores slavery, and how it splits the nation as abolitionists and slaveholders find justification in the Bible. Frederick Douglass condemns Christianity; President Lincoln struggles to make sense of the war's carnage and the death of his young son. Lincoln, who previously had favored reason over revelation, embarks on a spiritual journey that transforms his ideas about God and the Civil War's ultimate meaning. "A New Light" explores the intellectual and cultural conflicts between traditional religious beliefs and the forces of modernity, which reached a crescendo in the 1925 trial of John Scopes, a Tennessee teacher arrested for teaching evolution.
Episode 3
God in America: Soul of a Nation (5) & Of God and Caesar (6)
Wed, Oct 13, 2010
God in America: Soul of a Nation (5) and Of God and Caesar (6): "Soul of a Nation" explores the post-World War II era, when rising evangelist, Billy Graham, tried to inspire a religious revival that fused faith with patriotism in a Cold War battle with "Godless Communism." As Americans flocked in record numbers to houses of worship, non-believers and religious minorities appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of religious expression in public schools. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a modern-day prophet calling upon the nation to honor both biblical teachings and the founders' democratic ideals of equal justice. "Of God and Caesar" explores the religious and political aspirations of conservative evangelicals' moral crusade over divisive social issues such as abortion and gay marriage. Across America, the religious marketplace expanded as new waves of immigrants from Asia, the Middle East and Latin America made the United States the most religiously diverse nation. The 2008 presidential election brought the re-emergence of a religious voice in the Democratic Party, bringing the country to a new plateau in its struggle to reconcile faith with politics. The 6-hour series closes with reflections on the role of faith in the public life of the country.
Episode 4
Robert E. Lee
Mon, Jan 3, 201184 mins
From PBS and American Experience - Robert E. Lee is celebrated by handsome equestrian statues in countless cities and towns across the American South and by no less than five postage stamps issued by the government he fought against during the four bloodiest years in American history.
Episode 5
Dinosaur Wars
Mon, Jan 17, 201155 mins
From PBS and American Experience - In the summer of 1868, paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh boarded a Union Pacific train for a sightseeing excursion through the heart of the newly opened American West. While most passengers simply saw magnificent landscapes, Marsh soon realized he was traveling through the greatest dinosaur burial ground of all time.
Episode 6
Panama Canal
Mon, Jan 24, 201184 mins
From PBS and American Experience - On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world's two largest oceans and signaling America's emergence as a global superpower.
Episode 7
The Greely Expedition
Mon, Jan 31, 201154 mins
From PBS and American Experience - Using scientific accounts, diaries, photographs and letters, this film reveals how poor planning, personality clashes, questionable decisions and pure bad luck conspired to turn a noble scientific mission into a human tragedy.
Episode 8
Triangle Fire
Mon, Feb 28, 201154 mins
From PBS and American Experience - The Triangle Fire chronicles the fire that tore through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City killing one hundred and forty-eight young women and forever changed the relationship between labor and industry in the United States.
Episode 9
The Great Famine
Wed, Feb 11, 202654 mins
The American Experience looks at Hebert Hoover's American Relief Administration and its efforts to distribute food during the Great Russian Famine of 1921.
Episode 10
Stonewall Uprising
Mon, Apr 25, 201183 mins
This documentary, part of American Experience (1988) series, examines the events leading up to what is now seen as the defining moment in the establishment of the gay rights movement in the United States: the riot at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in the summer of 1969. At that time, homosexuality was not only illegal, it was classified as mental illness. Bars like Stonewall were controlled by the mob and the police were paid to either look the other way or conduct their raids early in the day. On this night however, the police arrived when the bar was full. The reaction was swift with crowds quickly forming outside the bar. The next night, a crowd estimated in the thousands again confronted the police. As a result of these actions, the gay community made themselves known for the first time. A year later, in the summer of 1970, many of those involved staged the first Gay Pride parade.
Episode 11
Soundtrack for a Revolution
Mon, May 9, 2011
The story of the US civil rights movement and its music. Freedom music evolved from slave chants and black church. It helped people sing words they couldn't say. It was crucial helping protesters as they faced down aggression with dignity.
Episode 13
Freedom Riders
Mon, May 16, 2011114 mins
From PBS and American Experience - This inspirational documentary is about a band of courageous civil-rights activists calling themselves the Freedom Riders.
Episode 101
Jimmy Carter
Mon, Feb 21, 2011112 mins
A profile of former president Jimmy Carter. In 1980, after one term, he lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, receiving 41 percent of the popular vote. In the following years, however, he forged a new legacy as a respected statesman and humanitarian. The documentary charts his ascent during the turbulent 1970s; explores the role of his wife Rosalynn as his confidant and adviser; and details his successful post-presidency years.
Episode 102
U.S. Grant: Warrior
Mon, Jan 10, 2011
A profile of Ulysses S. Grant, chronicling how he rose from obscurity to become a Civil War hero who earned the admiration of the Northern public while, in the South, his hard-nosed tactics led him to be labeled a butcher.
