Season 1
12 episodes · 2006
1America Becomes a World Power
The United States was irrevocably transformed between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century. From controversial expansionism, through war in the Caribbean and Pacific, unrest in Asia and troubles at home, the country experienced radical change on a course to world leadership.
2The Progressive Era
Fostered by the fruits of the industrial revolution, the early twentieth century was a heady time for the wealthy class. For many others, life was fouled by poor working conditions, political corruption and social unrest. But slowly people began to demand the change, equality and reform that led to the birth of the Progressive Era.
3World War I
World War I pitted the Central Powers against the Allied Powers, which included the U.S. The Great War spawned unprecedented death and destruction. On the home front, African Americans and women assumed new roles; the suffrage movement gained steam; while racial tensions and the erosion of civil liberties threatened the country.
4The Roaring Twenties
The 1920s were an age of dramatic social and political change. Women got the right to vote, cut their hair and their skirts; alcohol was outlawed; Babe Ruth was king of the ballpark while Charles Lindbergh ruled the air. The nation's wealth doubled and many American's bought into a new "mass culture." The Roaring Twenties was a decade of startling contrasts in America.
5The Great Depression
It was called “Black Tuesday” - the day the bottom fell out of the stock market ushering in the Great Depression. Soon, soup kitchens and breadlines replaced the flappers and speakeasies of the Roaring Twenties. A new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, provided hope and leadership in the country's darkest hour.
6World War II
While the United States chose a course of isolationism in the aftermath of World War I, escalating aggression in Europe and Asia threatened world stability. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was thrust into a conflict that would span the globe and trigger political, social and military repercussions that would resonate through the twentieth century.
7The Post-War Years
1945 marked the end of World War II and the beginning of the power, politics and prosperity of the post-war years. The presidency passed from Truman to Eisenhower and millions migrated from the city to the suburbs. The Cold War loomed, babies boomed, and modern families became the bull’s-eye of the mass market. Americans turned-on their TVs, tuned-in their radios, and engaged in the latest fads.
8The Cold War: Part 1
The communists and capitalists united in World War II to crush the Fascists. But in 1945, with Hitler’s Germany defeated, the allies became adversaries. The world’s two great superpowers locked in a dramatic showdown over ideology, vision and freedom that would persist for five decades. Under the omnipresent threat of nuclear holocaust, the Cold War became the defining conflict of the twentieth century.
9The Cold War: Part 2
The communists and capitalists united in World War II to crush the Fascists. But in 1945, with Hitler’s Germany defeated, the allies became adversaries. The world’s two great superpowers locked in a dramatic showdown over ideology, vision and freedom that would persist for five decades. Under the omnipresent threat of nuclear holocaust, the Cold War became the defining conflict of the twentieth century.
10The Sixties
In the 1960s, Americans embraced the liberal promises and programs of two presidents: John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson. The two men could not have been more different, yet each embraced the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt and sought to reshape the New Deal into their own world vision. For JFK, it was the New Frontier; for LBJ, the Great Society. Each had its triumphs and failures, but together they redefined the role of federal government in American life and culture.
11The Civil Rights Movement
This documentary features the Civil Rights Movement in America.
12Vietnamfinale
Vietnam was the longest war in America’s history and the most divisive in more than a century. Decades later, U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia remains misunderstood, misinterpreted and misrepresented. This powerful program explores the genesis of America’s “quagmire” in the region—from the roots of Vietnamese nationalism and a century of French colonialism through the long and costly American war and beyond.