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Democracy United States Immigrants United States Imperialism United States History Industries United States History Labor United States History Legislation United States Reconstruction (US history, 1865-1877) United States Economic conditions United States History Civil War, 1861-1865 United States Politics and governmentSummary: Comparing sports with religion only goes so far, but in early-20th-century America, the reverence accorded baseball and its players resembled the trust and respect a priest might elicit from his parishioners. This program examines the life of the game between 1910 and 1920-the decade in which a godlike figure named Babe Ruth first appeared and the Black Sox scandal threatened, in the words of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: In 1871, Chicago burned to the ground, and from the ashes of the old city a new kind of metropolis rose up. This program shows the restless spirit embodied in the skyscrapers of American cities (as well as in the Statue of Liberty) but it also addresses new social problems, such as poverty and organized crime, that came with growing urbanization. Worker uprisings, immigration, and the expansion...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: This program introduces viewers to Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower, the man who went from Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during WWII to Commander-in-Chief of the United States during the early years of the Cold War.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: A battle over a dry-goods monopoly in Lincoln County, New Mexico, exposes corrupt politicians, cattle rustling, and cold-blooded murder in 1876. Erupting into a full-blown range war involving numerous Western legends, such as Billy the Kid and John Chisum, the conflict ultimately accomplishes very little.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: This episode of American Stories by acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns presents the history of one of our greatest icons. For over a century, she has stood on Liberty Island, a gift from France created by sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi. Torch eternally aloft, Lady Liberty has been the symbol of hope for generations of immigrants. Interviews with ordinary Americans reveal the statue’s great...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1985
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Summary: The nation seethes with racial conflict as immigrants increasingly become targets of prejudice, and as settlers and soldiers massacre Western Indians and force them onto reservations. As European freedom-seekers continue to pour into America through Ellis Island, the Supreme Court finally rules that non-citizens are due equal protection under the law.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2002
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Summary: The newly unveiled Statue of Liberty is a symbol of all that is best in America, inspiring a time of reform and compassion. Mother Jones brings the child labor issue to the forefront of the nation's consciousness, and Jane Addams, America's first social worker, creates Hull House. Ida Tarbell exposes the abuses of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2002
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Summary: The War Between the States rages. In 1863, the Confederate Army seems poised for victory. Following the bloody battle of Antietam, President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. Former slaves join the Union army in droves. With superior transportation (railroads), communication (telegraph lines), and battlefield technology, the Union prevails and America is on track to become a global...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Get set for an adventure that marked a new era in America! Filmmaker Ken Burns presents the hilarious 1903 saga of the first transcontinental automobile trip. On a visionary whim and a
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
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Summary: Burdened by a tragic family life, suicidal urges, and unsettled sexuality, Abraham Lincoln was able to employ his powerful wit and innate charm to transform his inner demons. Filmed as if through the president's own eyes, this episode of Biography captures the dark soul behind one of history's brightest lights. Interviews with leading Lincoln biographers such as Gore Vidal, Jan Morris, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Covering the years 1900 to 1910, this program introduces some of baseball's most celebrated and colorful characters-including Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, and Ty Cobb. The film spotlights Cobb's reputation as perhaps the most aggressive and least likeable player in the history of the game (a standing reflected in the episode's title, drawn from one of the outfielder's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: In 1869, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of America became linked through a massive implementation of rail technology. The Transcontinental Railroad connected Americans in new ways and altered the entire ecology of the continent. The vast Plains, where buffalo and Native Americans had once roamed, were remade by land speculators and industrialists. In less than a quarter of a century, the West...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: As industrial progress continues and the gap between the rich and poor widens, a new labor movement emerges to advocate for workers' rights. The strike at Lawrence, Massachusetts, is a victory for workers; and Susan B. Anthony paves the way for women's right to vote.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2002
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Summary: Henry Ford's Model T and assembly line, together with the discovery of abundant oil reserves, opened up a new way of life for Americans in the early decades of the twentieth century. This episode looks at those developments and traces the significance of World War I, prohibition, African-American migration from the South to northern cities, and the origin and growth of the Hollywood film industry.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: America became a nation just as a revolution in commerce and industry swept the Western world. This program explores the economic growth of the United States in the context of rising friction between the North and South-over the moral issue of slavery, but also over the differences between industrial power and an agricultural economy focused on cotton. With the election of Abraham Lincoln,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The Declaration of Independence stated 'all men are created equal,' but the nation’s slaves were a glaring exception. The colonial slave trade and brutal life for African-Americans on Southern plantations spark the abolition movement and the Underground Railroad. This episode explores the role of Frederick Douglass, and then looks at the impact of the Lincoln-Douglas debates on the westward...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2002
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Summary: American inventor, scientist, and businessman, this episode of A&E Classroom profiles Thomas Alva Edison, dubbed 'The Wizard of Menlo Park' for his creation of the long-lasting electric light bulb, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the sound recording. Edison originated more than 1,000 U.S. and international patents for devices that greatly influenced communication around the world.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The U.S. Constitution is the world's oldest written charter of government in continuous effect. Much of the success of this document can be attributed to the way the Constitution has changed to meet the needs of the American people. The framers of the Constitution wisely anticipated the need to make changes to the Constitution as the world itself changed. Between 1787, when the Constitution was...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In the early 1880s, abetted by the Chinese Exclusion Act, a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment swept across America. This program examines the exclusion years through the stories of Chinese Americans and their families who were kept apart by both ancient custom and U.S. law. These immigrants were trapped between countries, at home neither in the U.S. nor in China. The law of the land, which...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: In the early 20th century, blacks moved north in hope of a better life with little more than a prayer and the shirts on their backs. In this program, poet Maya Angelou, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, and a host of other African-Americans recount the story of the migration, of separated families, and of the hardships, prejudice, and struggle for acceptance in the North that resulted in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Many equate it with the Presidency, but the Executive branch of our government is far more complex than that. Containing departments and agencies that directly affect the health, safety, security, and prosperity of the American public, the Executive branch is an administrative mountain with the White House at its peak. This program expands on that description, familiarizing students with the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Around 1850, the vast fertile lands of the Midwest attracted nearly a million farmers from Norway, where land was scarce and often unfit to farm. Their life as pioneers was hard, but their descendants have prospered.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In the wake of President Bush's commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence, talk of impeachment is gaining steam: an opinion poll says that nearly half of all Americans favor impeachment of the President, and more than half believe Vice President Cheney should be impeached as well. Bill Moyers gets perspective from constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who wrote the first article of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Interweaving the history of a nearly 70-year-old institution with the challenges it faces in the post-9/11 world, this program goes inside the Pentagon, America's military center of gravity. Along its echoing corridors, some 23,000 people are absorbed in countless different tasks. But entering the concentric gem-shaped building entails more than peering into offices and computer banks. Viewers...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010