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American Experience Season 34 Episodes
Season 34 Episode Guide
6 Episodes 2022 - 2022
Episode 1
Riveted: The History of Jeans
Mon, Feb 7, 202253 mins
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.
Episode 2
The American Diplomat
Tue, Feb 15, 202253 mins
The American Diplomat explores the lives and legacies of three African-American ambassadors, Edward R. 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, they were asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home. Colloquially referred to 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 created a lasting impact on the content and character of the Foreign Service and changed American diplomacy forever.
Episode 3
Flood in the Desert
Tue, May 3, 202248 mins
Flood in the Desert tells the dramatic story of the March 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam and its aftermath, which was the second deadliest disaster in California history. The resulting flood killed over 400 people, destroyed millions of dollars of property, and washed away the reputation of one of the most celebrated men in Southern California, William Mulholland. A self-taught engineer, Mulholland had ensured Los Angeles' remarkable growth by building a cement aqueduct that piped water from the Owens Valley across the Mojave Desert and into the arid city, 233 miles away. He had good intentions, but the bursting of his St. Francis Dam, the city's largest single reservoir, was a colossal engineering and human failure.
Episode 4
Plague at the Golden Gate
Tue, May 24, 2022115 mins
The bubonic plague outbreak in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1900 and the hunt to identify its source leads to a spate of violent anti-Asian sentiment.
Episode 5
Taken Hostage: Part One
Mon, Nov 14, 2022113 mins
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 a close ally. 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 largely through the lens of the exceptional 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.
Episode 6
Taken Hostage: Part Two
Tue, Nov 15, 2022113 mins
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 a close ally. 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 largely through the lens of the exceptional 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.
