American Experience

Season 9

22 episodes · Oct 5, 1996

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Trailer · American Experience: The Great War: Transformed

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  • T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (1): The Long Campaign
    S9E1

    T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (1): The Long Campaign

    Oct 6, 199655m

    TR is born into a wealthy New York family that has a strong sense of social justice. He fights his severe asthma through a strenuous exercise program. He becomes New York State assemblyman. Then tragedy strikes with the untimely deaths of his beloved first wife and his mother. To escape his grief, he flees to the Dakota Badlands for the rigors of ranch life. When he returns, his political career flourishes; he eventually becomes William McKinley's Vice President.

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  • T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (2): The Bully Pulpit
    S9E2

    T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (2): The Bully Pulpit

    Oct 6, 199655m

    After McKinley's assassination, Roosevelt becomes an "accidental" president. Seeing himself as a crusader, TR uses the presidency to advance his agenda of social reform. He expands the power of the presidential office and comes to dominate American politics. Yet, the night he is elected to a second term, TR announces he will not run again, ultimately weakening his second term.

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  • The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie
    S9E3

    The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie

    Jan 20, 199755m

    A look at the poor emigrant boy who built a fortune in railroads and steel, and, unlike any industrialist of his time, began to systematically give it away; a man full of contradictions and inner conflict.

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  • Hawaii's Last Queen
    S9E4

    Hawaii's Last Queen

    Jan 27, 199755m

    Liliu'okalani moved easily between two worlds -- she had dined at the White House, had been a guest at Buckingham Palace, yet never abandoned her Hawaiian traditions. A writer and composer, she was thrust into a role she was never prepared to play, caught between two opposing forces.

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  • The Telephone
    S9E5

    The Telephone

    Feb 3, 199755m

    At first rented only "to persons of good breeding," seen as an expensive luxury for doctors and businessmen, within a decade the telephone had begun to transform American life. Trees gave way to telephone poles as operators known as "hello girls" began to connect a sprawling continent.

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  • Big Dream, Small Screen
    S9E6

    Big Dream, Small Screen

    Feb 10, 199755m

    The little known story of Philo T. Farnsworth, a Utah farm boy who first sketched out his idea for electronic television at the age of fourteen. An eccentric genius, Farnsworth spent years battling corporate giants to receive acknowledgment for his invention.

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  • New York Underground
    S9E7

    New York Underground

    Feb 17, 199755m

    It began with the blizzard of 1888 -- mountains of snow twenty feet high, horse cars and omnibuses abandoned, the city paralyzed. There was no doubt New York needed a public transportation system. It would be an American epic -- the largest public works project in history, overshadowed only by the Panama Canal.

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  • Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern
    S9E8

    Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern

    Apr 14, 199755m

    A story of the realities leading to the vanishing role of the family farm in the United States.

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  • Around the World in 72 Days
    S9E9

    Around the World in 72 Days

    Apr 28, 199755m

    At the age of nineteen, Nellie Bly talked her way into an improbable job on a newspaper, then went on to become "the best reporter in America." She was serious and spunky. To expose abuse of the mentally ill, she had herself committed. But when she travelled around the world in just 72 days, beating Jules Verne's fictional escapade, she turned herself into a world celebrity.

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  • Gold Fever
    S9E10

    Gold Fever

    May 12, 199755m

    The 1890's in America were desperate times. A depression brought bank and business failures and forced millions of men and women from their jobs. When gold was discovered in a frozen no man's land between Canada and Alaska, 100,000 people made the treacherous journey in search of riches.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (Part 1 & 2)
    S9E11

    Vietnam: A Television History (Part 1 & 2)

    May 26, 199755m

    "Vietnam: A Television History" begins by tracing the "Roots of a War" to French colonialism. "America's Mandarin" looks at the start of America's involvement in Vietnam during the 1950s and '60s.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (3): LBJ Goes to War
    S9E12

    Vietnam: A Television History (3): LBJ Goes to War

    Jun 2, 199755m

    LBJ Goes to War (1964-65) examines the escalating American involvement following the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. Interviewed: Gen. William Westmoreland (USA Ret.) and former Secretary of State Dean Rusk.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (4): America Takes Charge
    S9E13

    Vietnam: A Television History (4): America Takes Charge

    Jun 9, 199755m

    In "America Takes Charge (1965-67)," GIs recall combat experiences during the years of U.S. military escalation. Also: a sequence in which Americans and Vietnamese describe the same operation.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (5): America's Enemy
    S9E14

    Vietnam: A Television History (5): America's Enemy

    Jun 16, 199755m

    As "Vietnam: A Television History" continues, "America's Enemy (1954-67)" examines the escalating war from the point of view of North Vietnamese leaders and their followers, beginning with the country's partition after the French defeat. Interviewed: former Premier Pham Van Dong.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (6): Tet 1968
    S9E15

    Vietnam: A Television History (6): Tet 1968

    Jun 23, 199755m

    Vietnam: A Television History": TV-news footage graphically recalls "Tet 1968," the bold North Vietnamese and Vietcong offensive. The attacks gave the enemy a "brilliant political victory" in the U.S, says former Secretary of State Dean Rusk.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (7): Vietnamizing the War
    S9E16

    Vietnam: A Television History (7): Vietnamizing the War

    Jun 30, 199755m

    "Vietnam: A Television History": The gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops and their replacement by the South Vietnamese are recalled in "Vietnamizing the War (1968-73)." But morale was low among Americans still in the country, and veterans interviewed recall racial divisions and the availability of drugs.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (8): Cambodia and Laos
    S9E17

    Vietnam: A Television History (8): Cambodia and Laos

    Jul 7, 199755m

    America's involvement in—and secret bombing of—Cambodia and Laos are chronicled as "Vietnam: A Television History" continues. After the bombing halt in August 1973, the Communist Khmer Rouge advanced on the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, and finally, in April 1975, the city fell.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (9): Peace is at Hand
    S9E18

    Vietnam: A Television History (9): Peace is at Hand

    Jul 14, 199755m

    "Vietnam: A Television History": "Peace Is at Hand (1968-73)" recalls the peace negotiations in Paris, including Henry Kissinger's "secret" talks with Le Duc Tho. As the talks dragged on, the U.S. stepped up air attacks.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (10): Homefront USA
    S9E19

    Vietnam: A Television History (10): Homefront USA

    Jul 21, 199755m

    "Vietnam: A Television History - Homefront U.S.A.," traces the widening rift between supporters and opponents of the war, from the first demonstrations in the mid-1960s to the May 1970 Kent State shootings.

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  • Vietnam: A Television History (11): The End of the Tunnel
    S9E20

    Vietnam: A Television History (11): The End of the Tunnel

    Jul 28, 199755m

    "Vietnam: A Television History" concludes with "The End of the Tunnel," which recalls the 1973 Paris accords and the subsequent collapse of South Vietnam. Included: vivid footage of helicopter evacuations in Saigon during the final hours before the Communists took the city on April 30, 1975.

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  • S9E30

    T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (3): The Good Fight

    Oct 7, 199655m

    TR is just 46 years old when he is inaugurated as president. He builds the Panama Canal, wins the Nobel Prize for Peace, and combatively introduces widesweeping social reforms. As his presidency draws to a close, TR names his best friend, Secretary of War William Howard Taft, as his successor. Taft wins the 1908 election.

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  • S9E31

    T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (4): Black Care

    Oct 7, 199655m

    TR opposes his old friend Taft for the 1912 Republican nomination. When Taft wins, TR runs for president with his own Progressive Party. Despite enormous popular support, he loses to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. TR, now 55, retreats to the jungles of Brazil for two years for what becomes the most harrowing expedition of his life. His four sons join the World War I effort; shatters TR. Nearly six months later, he dies in his sleep at Sagamore Hill.

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