Cook's Country

For more than a decade, renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has helped to expand America’s sense of itself, stimulating a national conversation about identity with humor, wisdom, and compassion. Professor Gates has explored the ancestry of dozens of influential people from diverse backgrounds, taking millions of viewers deep into the past to reveal the connections that bind us all.

In this PBS series, craftsman Norm Abram demonstrates how to build quality furniture in one's own workshop using traditional carpentry techniques. Abram also gives pointers on restoring and caring for antique furniture, along with short history lessons regarding famous craftsmen of America's past.

A Six Hour Series Join author and distinguished history professor Jonathan Phillips of Royal Holloway, University of London, as he takes viewers on a spectacular and dramatic twelve thousand mile journey of a lifetime, traveling the ancient roads to the very places where Christianity began. Ancient Roads from Christ to Constantine is a captivating adventure through four centuries and seven countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

In the fall of 2002, 17-year-old Lee Malvo and Gulf War veteran John Muhammad terrorized the D.C. region with a series of random shootings from inside the trunk of a blue Chevy Caprice, killing 10 people and injuring three.

Thomas Jefferson is a two-part portrait of our enigmatic and brilliant third president. Thomas Jefferson embodies within his own life the most profound contradictions of American history: as the author of the Declaration of Independence, he gave voice to our fervent desire for freedom, but he also owned more than 150 slaves and never saw fit to free them.

Five decades after Castro's revolution, Cuba's Secret Side explores Cuba's dual personality: the side seen on newsreels and by tourists, and the reality lived by its vibrant and astoundingly diverse people. Knowing that the Cuban government severely restricts all foreign journalists, Karin Muller took an enormous risk-she set out to film a documentary on a simple tourist visa. Free of government minders, she hitchhiked around Cuba for three months-sleeping in private homes, working with farmers and fishermen, and participating in festivals and religious ceremonies. She was arrested over a dozen times, but in the end she captured on film a side of Cuba that few foreigners ever see.