Season 1
26 episodes · Jan 1, 2000
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- S1E1
New World Encounters
Jan 1, 200026mAmerican history moves from west to east, beginning with Ice Age migrations, through the corn civilizations of Middle America, to the explorations of Columbus, de Soto, and other Spaniards.
- S1E2
English Settlement
Jan 8, 200027mAs the American character begins to take shape in the early seventeenth century, English settlements develop in New England and Virginia. Their personalities are dramatically different. Miller explores the origins of values, cultures, and economies that have collided in the North and South throughout the American story.
- S1E3
Growth and Empire
Jan 15, 200026mBenjamin Franklin and Franklin's Philadelphia take center stage in this program. As the merchant class grows in the North, the economies of southern colonies are built on the shoulders of the slave trade. Miller brings the American story to 1763 with the Peace of Paris and English dominance in America.
- S1E4
The Coming of Independence
Jan 22, 200026mProfessor Maier tells the story of how the English-loving colonist transforms into the freedom-loving American rebel. The luminaries of the early days of the Republic – Washington, Jefferson, Adams – are featured in this program as they craft the Declaration of – and wage the War for – Independence.
- S1E5
A New System of Government
Jan 29, 200026mAfter the War for Independence, the struggle for a new system of government begins. Maier looks at the creation of the Constitution of the United States. The Republic survives a series of threats to its union, and the program ends with the deaths of Adams and Jefferson on the Fourth of July, 1826.
- S1E6
Westward Expansion
Feb 5, 200026mAt the dawn of the 19th century, the size of the United States doubles with the Louisiana Purchase. The Appalachians are no longer the barrier to American migration west; the Mississippi River becomes the country's central artery; and Jefferson's vision of an Empire of Liberty begins to take shape. Historian Stephen Ambrose joins Maier and Miller in examining the consequences of the Louisiana Purchase – for the North, the South, and the history of the country.
- S1E7
The Rise of Capitalism
Feb 12, 200026mIndividual enterprise merges with technological innovation to launch the Commercial Revolution – the seedbed of American industry. The program features the ideas of Adam Smith, the efforts of entrepreneurs in New England and Chicago, the Lowell Mills Experiment, and the engineering feats involved in Chicago's early transformation from marsh to metropolis.
- S1E8
The Reform Impulse
Feb 19, 200026mThe Industrial Revolution has its dark side, and the tumultuous events of the period touch off intense and often thrilling reform movements. Professor Masur presents the ideas and characters behind the Great Awakening, the abolitionist movement, the women's movement, and a powerful wave of religious fervor.
- S1E9
Slavery
Feb 26, 200026mWhile the North develops an industrial economy and culture, the South develops a slave culture and economy, and the great rift between the regions becomes unbreachable. Masur looks at the human side of the history of the mid-1800s by sketching a portrait of the lives of slave and master.
- S1E10
The Coming of the Civil War
Mar 4, 200026mSimmering regional differences ignite an all-out crisis in the 1850s. Professor Martin teams with Professor Miller and historian Stephen Ambrose to chart the succession of incidents, from 'Bloody Kansas' to the shots on Fort Sumter, that inflame the conflict between North and South to the point of civil war.
- S1E11
The Civil War
Mar 11, 200026mAs the Civil War rages, all eyes turn to Vicksburg, where limited war becomes total war. Professor Miller looks at the ferocity of the fighting, at Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and at the bitter legacy of the battle – and the war.
- S1E12
Reconstruction
Mar 18, 200026mProfessor Miller begins the program by evoking in word and picture the battlefield after the battle of Gettysburg. With the assassination of President Lincoln, one sad chapter of American history comes to a close. In the fatigue and cynicism of the Civil War's aftermath, Reconstructionism becomes a promise unfulfilled.
- S1E13
America at its Centennial
Mar 25, 200026mAs America celebrates its centennial, five million citizens descend on Philadelphia to celebrate America's technological achievements, but some early principles of the Republic remain unrealized. Professor Miller and his team examine where America is in 1876 and discuss the question of race.
- S1E14
Industrial Supremacy
Apr 1, 200026mSteel and stockyards are the mighty engine of industrialism thunders forward at the end of the 19th century. Miller continues the story of the American Industrial Revolution in New York and Chicago, looking at the lives of Andrew Carnegie, Gustavus Swift, and the countless workers in the packinghouse and on the factory floor.
- S1E15
The New City
Apr 8, 200026mMiller explores the tension between the messy vitality of cities that grow on their own and those where orderly growth is planned. Chicago – with Hull House, the World's Columbian Exposition, the new female workforce, the skyscraper, the department store, and unfettered capitalism – is the place to watch a new world in the making at the turn of the century.
- S1E16
The West
Apr 15, 200026mProfessor Scharff continues the story of Jefferson's Empire of Liberty. Railroads and ranchers, rabble-rousers and racists populate America's distant frontiers, and Native Americans are displaced from their homelands. Feminists gain a foothold in their fight for the right to vote, while farmers organize and the Populist Party appears on the American political landscape.
- S1E17
Capital and Labor
Apr 22, 200026mThe making of money pits laborers against the forces of capital as the twentieth century opens. Miller introduces the miner as the quintessential laborer of the period – working under grinding conditions, organizing into unions, and making a stand against the reigning money man of the day, J. Pierpont Morgan.
- S1E18
TR and Wilson
Apr 29, 200026mProfessor Brinkley compares the presidencies of Roosevelt and Wilson – the Warrior and the Minister – in the first decades of the 20th century. Miller and Brinkley discuss American socialism, Eugene Debs, international communism, and the roots of the Cold War.
- S1E19
A Vital Progressivism
May 6, 200026mProfessor Martin offers a fresh perspective on Progressivism, arguing that its spirit can be best seen in the daily struggles of ordinary people. In a discussion with Scharff and Miller, the struggles of Native-, Asian-, and African-Americans are placed in the context of the traditional white Progressive movement.
- S1E20
The Twenties
May 13, 200026mThe Roaring Twenties take to the road in Henry Ford's landscape-altering invention -- the Model T. Ford's moving assembly line, the emergence of a consumer culture, and the culmination of forces let loose by these entities in Los Angeles are all explored by Miller.
- S1E21
FDR and the Depression
May 20, 200026mBrinkley continues his story of 20th century presidents with a profile of Roosevelt. Brinkley paints a picture of America during the Depression and chronicles some of Roosevelt's programmatic and personal efforts to help the country through its worst economic crisis. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is at FDR's side and, in many respects, ahead of him as the decade unfolds.
- S1E22
World War II
May 27, 200026mAmerica is enveloped in total war, from mobilization on the home front to a scorching air war in Europe. Miller's view of WWII is a personal essay on the morality of total war, and its effects on those who fought, died, and survived, including members of his own family.
- S1E23
The Fifties
Jun 3, 200026mWorld War II is fought to its bitter end in the Pacific and the world lives with the legacy of its final moment: the atomic bomb. Miller continues the story as veterans return from the war and create new lives for themselves in the '50s. The GI Bill, Levittown, civil rights, the Cold War, and rock 'n' roll are discussed.
- S1E24
The Sixties
Jun 10, 200026mScharff weaves the story of the Civil Rights movement with stories of the Vietnam War and Watergate to create a portrait of a decade. Lyndon B. Johnson emerges as a pivotal character, along with Stokely Carmichael, Fanny Lou Hamer, and other luminaries of the era.
- S1E25
Contemporary History
Jun 17, 200026mThe entire team of historians joins Miller in examining the last quarter of the 20th century. A montage opens the program and sets the stage for a discussion of the period – and of the difficulty of examining contemporary history with true historical perspective. TV critic John Leonard offers a footnote about the impact of television on the way we experience recent events.
- S1E26
The Redemptive Imagination
Jun 24, 200026mStorytelling is a relentless human urge and its power forges with memory to become the foundation of history. Novelists Charles Johnson (Middle Passage), Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha), and Esmeralda Santiago (America's Dream) join Miller in discussing the intersection of history and story. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., closes the series with a reflection on the power of the human imagination.