American Experience

1624 - 1865
1866 - 1900
1901 - 1925
1926 - 1945
1946 - TODAY

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CHRONOLOGICAL: 1946 - TODAY:

1946 | 1954 | 1964 | 1979

Radio Bikini (1946)
(no website available)
While the U.N. debated strategies for control of atomic energy, the U.S. Navy was preparing two highly-publicized nuclear tests.

While the U.N. debated strategies for control of atomic energy, the U.S. Navy was preparing two highly-publicized nuclear tests. Seven hundred fifty cameras were shipped to Bikini to be used for a major propaganda film. Bikinians had no say about turning their idyllic island into an atomic test site. Forty years later, their home would still be too contaminated to support human life.

Sit Down And Fight -- Walter Reuther & The Rise Of The Auto Workers Union (1946)
(no website available)
In 1936, Walter Reuther led one of the bitterest, bloodiest battles fought in the history of the American labor movement.

In 1936, Walter Reuther led one of the bitterest, bloodiest battles ever fought in the history of the American labor movement. By sitting down and stopping the machinery of factory production, auto workers forced the Big Three to recognize their union. GM tried turning off the heat and blocking food deliveries and Ford sent members of their private security force to beat up UAW officials, but workers stood their ground.

New York: The Center of the World (1946-2003)
Postwar New York and the global economic order -- told through the story of the rise, destruction, and afterlife of the World Trade Center.

The eighth episode of the award-winning series New York: A Documentary Film examines the rise and fall of the World Trade Center -- from its conception in the post-World War II economic boom, through its controversial construction in the 1960s and 1970s, to its tragic demise in the fall of 2001 and extraordinary response of the city in its aftermath.The film presents rare archival footage, including never-before-seen footage of the World Trade Center's architect, Minoru Yamasaki, at work on the project's design in 1962; and extensive interviews with commentators and experts including Guy Tozzoli and Leslie Robertson, the Trade Center's project manager and structural engineer, respectively, who recount firsthand their experience with the project's life and death.Joining them are many of the people who helped make sense of 400 years of New York's history in the first seven episodes of New York: A Documentary Film -- Pete Hamill, Mike Wallace, Robert A. M. Stern and Ada Louise Huxtable among them. The film explores the urban, economic, architectural and symbolic significance of the great towers, their horrific demise, and the ongoing effort to come to terms with their loss.

The Berlin Airlift (1948-1949)
After the Soviet blockade of West Berlin, British and American pilots delivered food and fuel to the city's two million civilians and twenty thousand allied soldiers for nearly a year. Using re-enactments and personal stories of those who lived through t

It could have been the start of World War III. Instead, it became the largest humanitarian campaign the world had ever seen. On June 24, 1948, one of the first major crises of the Cold War occurred when the Soviet Union blocked railroad and street access to West Berlin. For nearly a year two million civilians and twenty thousand allied soldiers in the city's western sector were fed and fueled entirely from the air. Former German soldiers built airfields and repaired engines for the enemies they had been shooting out of the sky just three years before. British and American pilots, so recently delivering death, were now angels of mercy, supplying coal and flour, coffee and chocolate to the beleaguered city. Through lavish re-enactments and the personal stories of those who lived through the airlift, this AMERICAN EXPERIENCE production provides a dramatic and striking portrait of the first battle of the Cold War.

That Rhythm, Those Blues (1948-1954)
(no website available)
The evolution of rhythm and blues from the 1940s into the 50s.

The evolution of rhythm and blues through the careers of singers Ruth Brown and Charles Brown, from the 1940s into the 50s, with contemporary performances by both.

Nixon (1948-1974)
One of the most enigmatic modern political figures, Richard Nixon inspired divided passions in America.
(Watch the program online on The Presidents Web site.)

He possessed a fateful combination of strengths and weaknesses that propelled him to the White House and then brought him down. One of the most enigmatic modern political figures, Richard Nixon inspired divided passions in America. From his days as a young anti-Communist crusader to the president who astounded the nation with his foreign policy initiatives in China and the Soviet Union, and finally, his resignation in the face of impeachment, Nixon was a tragically insecure man with a bold vision. At the center of American politics for more than 25 years, he continues to arouse both anger and admiration.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1951-1962)
(no website available)
Her warning sparked a revolution in environmental policy and created a new ecological consciousness.

She had been a biologist for the federal government when she first took note of the effects of the unregulated use of pesticides and herbicides, especially DDT. Magazines refused to publish her articles because they were afraid of losing advertising. When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1963, she was viciously attacked, called "an ignorant and hysterical woman." But her warning sparked a revolution in environmental policy and created a new ecological consciousness.

Test Tube Babies (1951-1981)
The pioneering researchers in the effort to conceive babies through in vitro fertilization faced daunting obstacles and much controversy before the world's first test tube baby was born on July 25, 1978.

She was described in the press as the "Baby of the Century." When Louise Brown, the world's first successful test tube baby, was born in Great Britain on July 25, 1978, the event was heralded as the beginning of a technological revolution in human reproduction. It was also the culmination of a decade-long effort involving scientists on both sides of the Atlantic to conceive babies through in vitro fertilization, or IVF. This AMERICAN EXPERIENCE production interweaves the story of two doctors, the renowned New York gynecologist Landrum Shettles and the British physiologist Robert Edwards. Haunted by the fear that their laboratory interventions in the natural fertilization process would create malformations in the embryo, these pioneering researchers faced a slew of daunting obstacles. Colleagues were reluctant to collaborate on work they deemed too controversial and government agencies refused to fund their research, believing testing IVF on humans was premature. As they forged ahead, Shettles and Edwards met with fierce cultural opposition. The Catholic Church excoriated them for taking �the Lord�s work into their own hands,� and their work became the locus of debate over the limits of science and a precursor of the current debate over cloning and stem cell research.

CHRONOLOGICAL: 1946 - TODAY:

1946 | 1954 | 1964 | 1979