The Swamp, explores the repeated efforts to reclaim, control and transform what was seen as a vast wasteland into an agricultural and urban paradise, and, ultimately, the drive to preserve America’s greatest wetland.
The story of the polio crusade pays tribute to a time when Americans banded together to conquer a terrible disease. The medical breakthrough saved countless lives and had a pervasive impact on American philanthropy that continues to be felt today.
In the late 19th century, paleontologists Edward Cope and O.C. Marsh uncovered the remains of hundreds of prehistoric animals in the American West, including dozens of previously undiscovered dinosaur species. But the rivalry that developed between them would spiral out of control, permanently damaging their careers and threatening the future of American paleontology.
Different conservation groups had different objectives, but the 800-mile Trans-Alaska pipeline project rallied the environmental community in a way no other project had done before.
He couldn’t find a publisher for his sensational expose of one of America’s most powerful industries. Then one young editor decided to take a chance. The rest is food-safety history.
The story of a mathematical genius whose career was cut short by a descent into madness. At the age of 30, John Nash, a stunningly original and famously eccentric MIT mathematician, suddenly suffered a breakdown.
The makers of Transcontinental Railroad traveled back and forth across the original route of the railroad, looking for locations, stories, and images. Explore the path of the original railroad through six Western states with producer Mark Zwonitzer as your guide.
Gurock is a professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University and chair of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society. This is the edited transcript of an interview conducted on March 2, 2010.
