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Browse the entire American Experience series featuring over 200 films. Watch full films online, download teacher’s guides, go behind the scenes, and learn more about your favorite films.
From a small-town Texas murder emerged a landmark civil rights case. The little-known story of the Mexican American lawyers who took Hernandez v. Texas to the Supreme Court, challenging Jim Crow-style discrimination.
The internationally famous carnival of delights in New York was the birthplace of the hot dog and the roller coaster, and offered everything from the bawdy to the surreal.
The unbounded optimism of the Jazz Age and the shocking consequences when reality finally hit on October 29th, ultimately leading to the Great Depression.
On June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord went into effect. Allied troops invaded Normandy, fighting to free Europe from Nazi occupation and end World War II.
For 21 years, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley ruled the city, building the Sears Tower and O'Hare Airport. He was mayor during Chicago's tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention.
The dramatic story of a Vietnamese mother, the Amerasian daughter she sent away for adoption, and their reunion 22 years after the Vietnam War.
Prohibition's effect on Detroit, Michigan, the first major American city to "go dry," and the growth of the liquor smuggling industry.
A year in the life of Wyoming cowboys and the ranching families of the American West.
Three years before the Gold Rush, 87 pioneers took a shortcut westward to California, only to get caught in the snows of the Sierra Nevada. The emigrants' fateful journey culminated in death and cannibalism.
Alexander Hamilton -- founding father and coauthor of the Federalist Papers -- went up against political rival and former vice president Aaron Burr in one of history's most famous duels.
The African American jazz composer and bandleader performed regularly at Harlem's Cotton Club, and thrived from the Depression through World War II, leaving a legacy in music.
Inventor Thomas Edison built the first practical light bulb and revolutionized the world. "The Wizard of Menlo Park" is also credited with the first record player and movie camera, among hundreds of other innovations.
As First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt supported President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies and advocated for civil rights. She became one of the 20th century's most influential women.
The story of a Russian immigrant and anarchist who is said to have inspired the assassination of President William McKinley. "The most dangerous woman in America" was exiled in 1919.
The young CBS reporter changed his pacifist ideals after reporting on the rise of fascism in Europe during World War II. Based on Sevareid's 1946 book of the same name.
A writer's childhood and the development of her photography and writing about the American South. Based on Welty's 1983 autobiography of the same name.
A great playwright's turbulent story: from childhood through the years of his Nobel Prize-winning career (including "The Iceman Cometh" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night") to his lonely, painful death.
This acclaimed 14-hour series covers all of the major events of the civil rights movement from 1954-1985, tracing African Americans' struggle for equality and justice.
Ten years after American troops arrived in South Vietnam, communists seized Saigon in an attack that brought the war to a startling conclusion. The final chapter in American Experience's 11-hour series, Vietnam.
The personal journey of three generations of a Japanese American family, including their stint in internment camps during World War II.
In 1927, the Mississippi River flooded from New Orleans up to Illinois, leaving a million people homeless and leading to a major black migration to the North. A dramatic natural disaster story.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt restored hope after the Great Depression and led the nation during World War II. Part of the award-winning The Presidents collection.
Cuba's Communist leader defied the odds, surviving his Soviet benefactors, the wrath of U.S. presidents, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and several assassination attempts.
Joe Louis became a symbol of African American equality and democracy. Max Schmeling represented Hitler's Aryan racial theories and fascism. The two boxers fought in 1938 -- on the eve of World War II.
During World War II more than a thousand women signed up to fly with the U.S. military as WASPS. 38 died in service, though they received no benefits as they had no official military status.
Before World War II, San Francisco's Chinatown was closed to outsiders, but second generation Chinese Americans defied cultural tradition to pursue their passion for American music and dance.
Nearly every American town has a baseball diamond. A wry philosophical essay on what makes baseball the great American pastime.
The Freedom Summer of 1964 saw whites and blacks coming together in a nonviolent army to register African American voters, create schools and bring national attention to the struggle for racial equality.
French settlers in Louisiana merged with African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans and others to create Cajun and Zydeco musical traditions.
Of all the alphabet agencies of the New Deal, none captured the public's imagination like J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. G-Men were public heroes, doing battle with John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde and other criminals.
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