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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.
The story of a founding father who laid the groundwork for the nation's modern economy -- including the banking system and Wall Street. He was also a primary author of the Federalist Papers.
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.
Before he became the first U.S. president, service to the colonies would profoundly change George Washington. The man who came to symbolize the American Revolution scorned attempts to participate in any system but democracy.
Discovery of a precious metal inspired worldwide migration by Forty-Niners, the eager gold-seekers who settled the westernmost state and turned California into a land of opportunity and fierce competition.
The second U.S. president, John Adams, was arguably the most influential of the founding fathers. Using letters John and his wife Abigail exchanged, this film explores their tumultuous times.
The legendary trapper, scout and soldier helped map the Oregon Trail. The ultimate frontiersman, Carson inspired popular novels before being associated with the "Long Walk" of the Navajo people.
Martha Ballard was a midwife and mother in Maine following the American Revolution. From her diary, see 18th-century America through a woman's eyes.
A complex portrait of Mormonism. From Joseph Smith's discovery of gold tablets to persecution, migration, and settlement in Utah, the film explores the history of the most American of religions.
Dr. George Parkman, one of Boston's richest citizens, went missing in 1849. Accused by a janitor, a respected Harvard professor was hanged for Parkman's murder after a sensational trial.
In 1775, local American militias routed the British at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. This film follows the 65 "British soldiers" and 67 "American rebels" who reenact the battle today.
In the early 1830s Texas was home to more than 20,000 U.S. settlers, and 4,000 Mexican Tejanos. Still ruled by Mexico, the land was about to be mired in war. The Tejanos had to pick a side.
America's first great songwriter, Stephen Foster, wrote 200 songs including "Oh! Susanna" and "Camptown Races." Largely unhappy, Foster died a penniless alcoholic at 37.
The journey of Prince Maximilian, German naturalist, and artist Karl Bodmer, who explored the Mississippi River area from 1832-1834 documenting the landscape, plants and the lives of Native Americans.
The story of Native peoples’ valiant resistance to expulsion from their lands and the extinction of their culture -- from the Wampanoags of New England, who used their alliance with the English to weaken rival tribes (episode 1, “After the Mayflower”), to the bold new leaders of the 1970s who harnessed the momentum of the civil rights movement to forge a pan-Indian identity (episode 5, “Wounded Knee”). Also, contemporary Native Americans tell their own stories and NativeNow explores important issues of language, sovereignty and enterprise.
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