Films: 1921 - 1930
Browse the entire American Experience series featuring over 250 films. Watch full films online, download teacher’s guides, go behind the scenes, and learn more about your favorite films.
Alone on the Ice
In 1934, American polar explorer Richard Byrd became the first to experience winter in Antarctica's interior.
Amelia Earhart : 1 hr
The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, Earhart disappeared in 1937 during an attempt to circumnavigate the world by airplane.
Ballad of a Mountain Man : 1 hr
Bascom Lamar Lunsford and his campaign to preserve mountain music and dance.
Big Dream, Small Screen
A Utah farm boy builds a prototype for a television, but is thwarted by movie studio executives wanting to control the technology.
The Crash of 1929 : 1 hr
The unbounded optimism of the Jazz Age and the shocking consequences when reality finally hit on October 29th, 1929.
Demon Rum : 1 hr
Prohibition's effect on Detroit, Michigan, the first major American city to "go dry," and the growth of the liquor smuggling industry.
Duke Ellington - Reminiscing in Tempo : 2 hrs
The African American jazz composer and bandleader performed regularly at Harlem's Cotton Club, leaving a legacy in music.
Eudora Welty - One Writer's Beginnings : 1 hr
A writer's childhood and the development of her photography and writing about the American South.
Eugene O'Neill
A great playwright's turbulent story, from childhood through the years of his Nobel Prize-winning career to his lonely, painful death.
Fatal Flood
In 1927, the Mississippi River flooded from New Orleans to Illinois, leaving a million people homeless and leading to a major black migration to the North.
God Bless America and Poland Too : 1 hr
A nostalgic and humorous look at how old world Chicago lives side by side with the new.
God in America : 6 hrs
For the first time on television, God in America will explore the historical role of religion in the public life of the United States.
Goin' Back To T-Town : 1 hr
The black residents of Tulsa relive their community's remarkable rise and tragic decline.
Golden Gate Bridge : 1 hr
After 18 years of struggles, the Golden Gate Bridge opened on May 27, 1937.
The Great Air Race of 1924 : 1 hr
The first around-the-world air race was sponsored to prove that the airplane had a commercial future.
The Great Famine : 1 hr
The American effort to relieve starvation in Soviet Russia in 1921 during the worst natural disaster in Europe in 500 years.
Henry Ford : 2 hrs
The story of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century.
The Hunt for Pancho Villa : 1 hr
After notorious revolutionary leader Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico, General John Pershing and his 150,000 man cavalry set out to get Villa.
Knute Rockne and His Fighting Irish : 1 hr
Football coach Knute Rockne of Notre Dame was a pivotal figure in the sudden rise of sports to a position of power in American culture.
Las Vegas: An Unconventional History
Originally settled as a mail stop, Las Vegas changed from an Old West vacation town, to a mafia haven, to the "Atomic City" and "Sin City."
Lindbergh
The first man to fly across the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh was unprepared for the attention, particularly after his son was kidnapped.
Love in the Cold War : 1 hr
An American Communist family that had fled to Moscow in the late 1920s, return to America in 1935 but can not bring their 5-year-old son.
MacArthur
General Douglas MacArthur led American troops in World Wars I and II before being fired by President Harry Truman during the Korean War.
Midnight Ramble : 1 hr
The little-known story of a black independent film industry that produced nearly 500 feature films for African American audiences.
Miss America
The country's oldest beauty contest has become a battleground and a barometer for the position of women in society.
Monkey Trial
John Scopes' free speech trial pitted science against religion after the teacher presented Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in a Tennessee school.
The Mormons : 2 hrs
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.
- 1
- 2 of 2
