Special Features
- Biography: William "Bloody Bill" Anderson
- Primary Resources: Newspaper Accounts
- Timeline: The Life and Death of Jesse James
- Teacher's Resources: Teacher's Guide
- Photo Gallery: Missouri Outlaws
- General Article: Jesse James' Bank Robberies
The story of Jesse James remains one of America's most cherished myths... and one of its most wrong-headed. A product of the American Civil War, James was less heroic than brutal; America's own Robin Hood who robbed not only the rich, but the poor and defenseless as well, always saving the treasure for himself.
My American Experience
Share Your Story
Since 1921, dozens of movies have featured a character based on Jesse James, depicting him in very different lights. Which portrayal do you think is the most historically accurate? Do you have a favorite?
Truman
Harry Truman was responsible for finding America's place at the start of the Cold War. Part of the award-winning Presidents collection.
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Chicago: City of the Century
The story of Chicago's dramatic transformation from a swampy frontier town to a massive metropolis in the nineteenth century.
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Eric Sevareid's Not So Wild A Dream
The young CBS reporter changed his pacifist ideals after reporting on the rise of fascism in Europe during World War II.
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Billy the Kid
The boy behind the myth, who in just a few short years transformed himself from a skinny orphan to the most feared man in the West and an enduring icon. Part of The Wild West collection.
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Reconstruction - The Second Civil War
The stories of ordinary people in the tumultuous years after the Civil War, when America struggled to rebuild the Union.
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The Radio Priest
Roman Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin used the power of radio to rail against the nation's economic system in the Depression.
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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.
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Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory
In the decade after the Civil War, former slaves sing their way into a nation's heart with spirituals, the religious anthems of slavery.
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