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- 20071h 51mTV-148.5 (200)TV EpisodeAmericans are shocked by terrible losses on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa, while in Italy Allied forces are stalled for months at Monte Cassino and a risky landing at Anzio fails utterly. At home, as overcrowded "war towns" boom, economic transformation leads to confrontation and ugly racial violence.
- 20171h 49mTV-MA8.7 (655)TV EpisodeThe South Vietnamese fight on their own, succumbing to terrible losses in Laos. After he is reelected, President Richard Nixon strikes a peace deal with Hanoi that sees the release of American prisoners of war.
- 20011h 49mTV-PG7.5 (71)TV EpisodeDuring the Sixties, jazz is in trouble. Though Louis Armstrong briefly outsells the Beatles with "Hello Dolly," most jazz musicians are desperate for work and many head for Europe. In the 1970s, jazz loses the exuberant genius of Louis Armstrong and the transcendent artistry of Duke Ellington, Their passing seems to mark the end of the music itself. But in 1976, when Dexter Gordon returns from Europe for a triumphant comeback, jazz has a homecoming, too. A new generation emerges, led by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis - schooled in the music's traditions, skilled in the art of improvisation, and aflame with ideas. The musical journey that began in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century continues. As it enters its second century, jazz is still brand new every night, still vibrant, still evolving, and still swinging.
- The 19th century was a period of growth both for alcoholic beverages and the temperance movement. Washingtonian societies - made up of men who had taken a pledge to forgo all alcoholic beverage - sprang up across the country. Women were often excluded from these groups and so formed their own. The women's crusade of 1873 was essentially a general strike by women who brought business to a halt. Their protest spread to 911 communities in 37 territories. However no laws had been changed and within a few years, saloons were back in business. In 1879, Frances E. Willard became the head of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which she would lead for 19 years.It became a huge social welfare organization with 45 departments dealing with many issues other than temperance. Carrie Nation and her home defenders army started closing saloons in Kansas but it too failed to change laws. By the turn of the 20th century, there were some 300,000 saloons in America. Saloons were not only social centers but places where you could look for jobs or learn to speak English. The Anti-Saloon league was the most successful pressure group in America and the most effective in making alcohol a wedge issue. The brewers fought back but the temperance movement continued to grow, leading to the passing of the 19th Amendment.
- With gangsters terrorizing the public and profiting from the sale of alcohol, many citizens believed Prohibition was unsuccessful, which led to its repeal.
- With the passing of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, the federal government now passes legislation to enforce it. Known as the Volstead Act, the legislation forbids not only hard liquor but also beer and light wine which many legislators assumed would be exempted. Penalties as well were far harsher than many had expected. The ban on alcoholic beverages could not be complete as alcohol was required by many industrial processes. There were also exemptions for religious observances and for medicinal purposes. In fact, from the day the ban went into into effect,entrepreneurs found ways, some legal, most not - to get around the law. Some States had no legislation to implement the new amendment to the constitution and for the most part, the Federal government was left on its own to enforce it. Rum running. became big business with schooners plying their trade on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the U.S. By the mid-1920s many people had come to the conclusion that prohibition was a mistake. Those who drank were drinking more and with no way for government to regulate the illegal industry, they were also drinking bad liquor. Criminal gangs sprang up across the country but Chicago became synonymous with vice and booze.
- The 1920s begin with America trying to recover from World War I and baseball trying to recover from the scandal of the 1919 World Series.
- 20072h 23mTV-148.5 (251)TV EpisodeThis series profiles World War II as seen primarily through the eyes of people living in just four U.S. Cities. This episode details an antebellum period before the attack on Pearl Harbor, that attack, the fall of the Phillipines, the Bataan Death March and the fighting at Guadalcanal.
- 20141h 50mTV-PG8.5 (130)TV EpisodeThe war - and the resulting levels of work and security - had kept Franklin Roosevelt out of public sight. By the spring of 1944 however, he was seriously ill with bronchitis. This information was kept from the public with his doctor issuing far more positive medical reports. The event most had been waiting for finally occurred on June 6, 1944 when Allied forces landed in France. Among those going ashore was FDR's cousin and longtime political foe Theodore Roosevelt Jr., a Brigadier General who led his men in the attack at Utah beach. Less than a month later however, Theodore Jr. died of a massive heart attack. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his D-Day heroism. FDR's failing health was hidden from the public but apparent to all those he met including Stalin and Churchill. After his death, Eleanor continued with her own causes at one point saying that now felt free to speak her own mind for the first time in her life. She died in November 1962.
- By 1862, both sides had 1 million men in uniform across a 1000 mile battle front ranging from Manassas, Virginia to Missouri. Battles had taken a horrendous toll in human lives on both sides. Lincoln and his Cabinet were frustrated by the slow pace of the war and with Gen. George B. McClellan who apparently did not want to engage the enemy. The eventual attack on the Confederate capital, Richmond - by transporting Union troops by boat to the peninsula southeast of Confederate capital - was met by stiff resistance from a force one-tenth its size. McClellan dug in at Yorktown and the battle dragged on. Meanwhile, the South had a new weapon in the form of the Merrimack, the first ironclad ship far more powerful that anything the North had immediately available but they eventually responded with the Monitor, which won the epic battle of iron ships when the Merrimack withdrew. In the West, Union Gen. U.S. Grant won two crucial victories and enhanced his reputation as well by demanding unconditional surrender. Although the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862 resulted in a Union victory, that was certainly not obvious at the end of the first day. Adm. David Farragut went down the Mississippi and claimed New Orleans, splitting the Confederacy in two.
- The 1960s are a turbulent decade for America. There are race riots, anti-war protests, hippies, Woodstock. It is also a turbulent decade for baseball, as one by one its "sacred" institutions fall.
- 20072h 5mTV-148.7 (176)TV EpisodeA few weeks after the death of President Roosevelt shocks the country, Germany surrenders. Meanwhile, American sailors, soldiers and Marines endure the worst battle of the Pacific--Okinawa. In August, American planes drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Japanese, too, surrender. Millions return home--to try to learn how to live in a world without war.
- 20192h 19m8.7 (178)TV EpisodeThe 1970s to early 80s are a vibrant time in country, with Dolly Parton finding mainstream success; Hank Williams Jr. and Rosanne Cash emerging from their fathers' shadows; and Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings starting the "Outlaw" style.
- A documentary on the history of the sport with major topics including Afro-American players, player/team owner relations and the resilience of the game.
- Exploring the life and work of writer and publisher, scientist and inventor, diplomat and signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution: Benjamin Franklin.
- This documentary chronicles the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. The difficult construction process is described in interesting detail; later parts of the film interview current notables who describe the effects that the Brooklyn Bridge has had upon New York society and beyond.
- The creation of the 1,500-mile Alaska-Canada Highway.
- College Behind Bars is the inspiring, emotional, and deeply human story of men and women struggling to earn college degrees while in prison for serious crimes. In four years of study they become accomplished scholars, shatter stereotypes, reckon with their pasts, and prepare to return to society. This is a groundbreaking exploration of incarceration, injustice, race in America and the transformative power of education.
- The story of the creation of modern Country music.
- 20191h 55m8.5 (107)TV SpecialCountry music artists perform at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee in celebration of the upcoming country music documentary series directed by Ken Burns.
- The West had always symbolized hope and new beginnings, but in the 1850s, as more American pioneers poured west to start over, they brought with them the nation's oldest, most divisive issue -- slavery.
- When America enters World War II, jazz is part of the arsenal. Bandleaders like Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw enlist, taking their swing to the troops overseas. Many black Americans, segregated at home and in uniform, find themselves fighting for liberties their own country denies them. In a Harlem club called Minton's Playhouse, a small band of young musicians, led by Dizzy Gillespie and the saxophonist Charlie Parker, has discovered a new way of playing - fast, intricate, exhilarating, and sometimes chaotic. The sound will soon be called "bebop" and once Americans hear it, jazz will never be the same.
- Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War: Waitstill Sharp, a Unitarian minister, and Martha Sharp, a trained social worker, in February 1939, boldly commit to a life-threatening mission in Europe to assist refugees.
- America's desire for freedom and the open road resulted in the construction of thousands of highways during the Eisenhower administration. Through interviews, archival footage and photography, America's interstate highway system is revealed to have shaped every aspect of American life and affected the nation's history for better and for worse.
- 20191h 54m8.4 (158)TV EpisodeNeotraditional country artists such as George Strait, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire and the Judds keep country music true to its roots. Plus, the rise of superstar Garth Brooks and the return of Johnny Cash to the industry he helped create.
- After nearly a century of French colonial rule, Vietnam emerges independent, but divided.
- The history of the East Lake Meadows public housing project in Atlanta and the people who lived there from 1970 to its demolition in 2000, with special emphasis on the activism of Eva Davis asserting the rights of the tenants.
- Examines the African American struggle for opportunity and freedom, from the end of slavery and the Civil War, through Reconstruction and the beginning of the Great Migration out of the South in the early 20th century.
- In the early 1800's, no one knew who would control the seemingly infinite spaces of the West.
- For 50 years, radio dominated the airwaves as the first mass medium. Ken Burns examines the lives of three men who shared the responsibility for its invention and early success.
- The paradox of Thomas Jefferson, a Renaissance Man turned Founding Father and ambassador to Revolutionary France, and a plantation owner who argued that the matter of abolition should be left to future generations.
- 19998.0 (7)TV Episode
- After one of the ugliest presidential campaigns in history that almost destroyed the young nation, Thomas Jefferson becomes the third President of the United States, only to spend his twilight years in heavy debt and die bankrupted.
- Victory in Europe seems imminent, but in Holland, the Vosges Mountains, and the Hurtgen Forest, GIs learn painful lessons as old as war itself--that generals make plans, plans go wrong and soldiers die. Meanwhile, on the island of Peleliu, the Marines fight one of the most brutal, and unnecessary, battles of the Pacific.
- By the 1870s, only a few groups resisted the nation's push to conquer the West.
- While Gen. McClellan sat outside Richmond, three Union armies were being kept occupied by Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart in northwestern Virginia. Lee was named commander of the army of Northern Virginia and immediately seized the initiative and attacked McClellan at Mechanicsville. Growing increasingly frustrated at McClellan's lack of progress, Lincoln visited him on the battlefield. When the general told the President that hew needed yet more troops, Lincoln ordered him to withdraw. Cotton production was cut in the south hoping this would spur the major European powers, England and France, to recognize and perhaps even aid the Confederacy. Progress was being made on the issue of emancipating the slaves. Congress forbade the return of runaway slaves and in New Orleans, the military Governor would free the slaves of any landowner who complained. Lincoln realized that emancipation would have to be delayed until the Union had a major victory on the battlefield. That would not come until the battle of Antietam in September 1862.
- A biography of the life and work of the American architect.
- The conquest of the West was nearly complete by the 1870s. In one remarkable decade, with Indians effectively confined to reservations, over four million new settlers arrived to stake their claim to the future.
- 20141h 52mTV-PG8.3 (175)TV EpisodeThe adventurous life, political rise and personal tragedies of Theodore Roosevelt. The sheltered youth of his 5th cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The unhappy childhood of Teddy's niece and FDR's future wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.
- By the late 1880's, American settlers continue to claim tribal lands while the Dawes Act tries to break up the tribal structure of the Native American nations. The Native Americans take up the Ghost Dance putting their faith in religion until their hopes are crushed at the Massacre of Wounded Knee.
- 20091h 55mTV-G8.4 (75)TV EpisodeMather and Albright ally themselves with the automobile to "democratize" the national parks. Horace Kephart and George Masa launch a campaign to save the forests of the Smoky Mountains from destruction by establishing a national park.
- After the Civil War reunited North and South, Americans set out with renewed energy and optimism to finally unite the nation, East and West.
- 20091h 55mTV-PG8.3 (73)TV EpisodeFranklin D. Roosevelt enters battles to create national parks on the Olympic Peninsula, Florida's Everglades, and California's High Sierra. George Melendez Wright begins arguing that the parks are not doing enough to protect wildlife.
- Jazz begins in New Orleans, 19th century America's most cosmopolitan city, where the sound of marching bands, Italian opera, Caribbean rhythms, and minstrel shows fills the streets with a richly diverse musical culture. In the 1890s, African-American musicians such as Jelly Roll Morton, Buddy Bolden and Sydney Bichet create a new music out of these ingredients. Soon after the start of the new century, people are calling it jazz.
- During the Great Depression and World War II, country music thrives and reaches bigger audiences. Gene Autry sets off a craze for singing cowboys, Bob Wills adapts jazz's Big Band sound to create Texas Swing, and Roy Acuff becomes a star.
- Explore the painstaking process through which Hemingway created some of the most important works of fiction in American letters.
- America and the world are seeing more changes than at any time in history. And so is baseball.
- The debate team faces Harvard. Most seniors complete thesis projects but Giovannie is sent to SHU and might not finish his. Students at Taconic and Eastern celebrate at graduation.