Watch Full Films | American Experience | Official Site

Hard Hat Riot

Aired September 30, 2025 | 81 min

Hard Hat Riot revisits New York in 1970, when student protestors against the Vietnam War violently clashed with construction workers, ushering in a new political and cultural divide that would redefine the American political landscape.

Full Film Hard Hat Riot: Chapter 1 Hard Hat Riot: Trailer More

Fly With Me

Aired February 20, 2024 | 113 min

The story of the pioneering women who changed the world while flying it. Maligned as feminist sellouts, “stewardesses,” as they were called, were on the frontlines of a battle to assert gender equality and transform the workplace.

Full Film Chapter 1 Trailer More

Fly With Me (español)

Aired February 20, 2024 | 113 min

La historia de las mujeres pioneras que cambiaron el mundo mientras lo recorrían volando. Aunque les criticaron su feminismo, las “azafatas”, como se les llamaba, estuvieron a la vanguardia de la lucha por garantizar la igualdad de género y transformar los lugares de trabajo.

Full Film

The Gilded Age

Aired February 6, 2018 | 120 min

Meet the titans and barons of the glittering late 19th century, whose materialistic extravagance contrasted harshly with the poverty of the struggling workers who challenged them. The vast disparities between them sparked debates still raging today.

Full Film Chapter 1 Trailer More

The Mine Wars

Aired September 3, 2019 | 113 min

At the dawn of the 20th century, the struggle over coal — the material that fueled America — led to the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War and turned parts of West Virginia into a bloody war zone.

Chapter 1 Trailer More

The Big Burn

Aired September 7, 2022 | 53 min

In the summer of 1910, hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies. By the time it was all over, more than three million acres had burned and at least 78 firefighters were dead. It was the largest fire in American history.

Chapter 1 Teaser More

The Rise and Fall of Penn Station

Aired February 18, 2014

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company accomplished an enormous engineering feat, but destroyed a great architectural monument.

Chapter 1 Trailer More

Henry Ford

Aired January 29, 2013

The story of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century.

Chapter 1 Trailer More

Panama Canal

Aired January 24, 2011 | 83 min

In 1914, the Panama Canal connected the world’s two largest oceans. American ingenuity and innovation had succeeded where the French had failed disastrously, but the U.S. paid a price for victory.

Trailer More

The Civilian Conservation Corps

Aired November 2, 2009 | 53 min

One of the most popular New Deal programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps put three million young men to work in the nation's forests and parks at the height of the Great Depression.

Trailer More

The Great Transatlantic Cable

Aired April 11, 2005

Though the need for a transatlantic cable was obvious, the physical challenges to laying one were enormous. The project would require the production of a 2,000 mile long cable that would have to be laid three miles beneath the Atlantic.

More

Emma Goldman

Aired May 21, 2019 | 53 min

A notorious lecturer, fearless writer, and merciless publisher, Goldman was one of the most controversial women in America.

Chapter 1 Trailer More