325 results found

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  Film

  The Eugenics Crusade

  The Eugenics Crusade tells the story of the unlikely –– and largely unknown –– campaign to breed a “better” American race, tracing the rise of the movement that turned the fledgling science of heredity into a powerful instrument of social control.

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  Tupperware! | Article

  The Business of Direct Selling

  The shift from door-to-door cold calling to home party sales brought women into the business of direct selling.

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  Freedom Riders | Article

  Slow Progress

  During the early 20th century, the NAACP and other organizations employed a variety of courtroom strategies to chip away at Jim Crow laws mandating racial segregation. 

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  Film

  Streamliners: America's Lost Trains

  Although fleets of these high speed trains crisscrossed the country by the 1940s, their success was short-lived. The dramatic story of the streamliners is one of remarkable achievements and opportunities lost.

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  The Great Fever | Article

  Yellow Fever and the Scientific Method

  Since its first documented case in the 17th century, a great mystery surrounded yellow fever. What was its cause? Theories included "fomites" — contaminated objects like clothing and bedding from yellow fever patients — and airborne particles. It took a group of scientists in Cuba at the turn of the 20th century to discover the real answer.

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  McCarthy | Article

  American Experience Presents Podcast

  "American Experience Presents" brings a fresh take on the iconic stories told on TV's most-watched history series. Launching with three powerful narratives in podcast form: Joseph McCarthy, whose anti-communist crusade terrorized 1950s America; media titan William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper mogul whose empire shaped public opinion for decades; and Sgt. Isaac Woodard, the decorated World War II veteran whose brutal assault by police sparked a civil rights awakening. This new GBH podcast examines how these three transformative figures shaped pivotal moments in 20th century America, bringing their stories to life for a new generation of listeners.

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  Battle of the Bulge | Article

  Adolf Hitler

  Perhaps the most notorious figure of the 20th century, Adolf Hitler was the leader of the German Nazi (National Socialist German Workers') party and eventually became dictator over all of Germany. 

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  Influenza 1918 | Article

  Scientific Investigation of the 1918 Flu

  Early 20th-century scientists struggled to understand the source of the deadly 1918 influenza epidemic and how best to prevent it.

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  The Man Behind Hitler | Article

  Hitler and Goebbels: A Deadly Partnership

  Perhaps the most notorious figure of the 20th century, Adolf Hitler was the head of the National Socialist German Workers Party, the Nazi Party, and became dictator of Germany from the early 1930s until his suicide in 1945.

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  The Mormons | Article

  Interview: Jon Butler

  Jon Butler is Howard R. Lamar Professor Emeritus at Yale University.  Butler describes the complex origins of Joseph Smith and his early church, the historical background from which both emerged, and why portions of the church's history remain problematic for its leaders and members. This is the edited transcript of an interview conducted on May 16, 2006.

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  The Eugenics Crusade | Article

  Latinos and the Consequences of Eugenics

  Eugenic beliefs had serious implications for Latinos in California, especially working-class Mexican-origin women and men, who were a growing population in the state in the first half of the 20th century. 

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  Film

  The Big Burn

  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.

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  Film

  Lindbergh

  At 25, Charles A. Lindbergh — handsome, talented, and brave — arrived in Paris, the first man to fly across the Atlantic. But the struggle to wear the mantle of legend would be a consuming one. Crowds pursued him, reporters invaded his private life. His marriage, travels with his wife and the kidnapping and murder of their first child were all fodder for the front page.

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  Film

  Coney Island

  Coney Island is the story of a tiny spit of land at the foot of Brooklyn that at the turn of the century became the most extravagant playground in the country. In scale, in variety, in sheer inventiveness, Coney Island was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, and sooner or later everyone came to see it. 

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  Film

  The Lie Detector

  Discover the story of the polygraph, the controversial device that transformed modern police work, seized headlines and was extolled as an infallible crime-fighting tool. A tale of good intentions, twisted morals and unintended consequences.

   

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  Fatal Flood | Article

  Greenville, Mississippi Rejects the Ku Klux Klan

  Mississippi was a hostile place for African Americans in the first part of the 20th century. 

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  Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind | Article

  W.E.B. Du Bois

  William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, one of the most influential intellectuals of the 20th century, was an editor, historian, sociologist, novelist, civil rights leader, socialist, and pan-Africanist.

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  MacArthur | Article

  General John J. Pershing

  One of the most dashing men ever to wear the uniform, John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing was the most accomplished and celebrated American soldier of the early 20th century.

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  Film

  Monkey Trial

  In 1925, a biology teacher named John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution in defiance of Tennessee state law. His trial became an epic event of the twentieth century, a debate over free speech that spiraled into an all-out duel between science and religion.

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  Las Vegas: An Unconventional History | Article

  The Syndicate

  Over the years, a secondary government, or a "government with a government" in America, has been known by many names, most accurately, perhaps, as "the Syndicate."