American Experience

Challenges and triumphs of an unassuming midwesterner who was thrust into the role of national leader.

Challenges and triumphs of an unassuming midwesterner who was thrust into the role of national leader.

Challenges and triumphs of an unassuming midwesterner who was thrust into the role of national leader.

Challenges and triumphs of an unassuming midwesterner who was thrust into the role of national leader.

Challenges and triumphs of an unassuming midwesterner who was thrust into the role of national leader.

The life of a midwife living in Maine during the late 18th century, based on the journals of Martha Ballard and the research of a modern-day author.

Documentary of Carl Graham Fisher, an opportunist who saw potential for tourism in the swamp lands of Florida.

The worst epidemic in American history killed over 600,000 Americans during World War I. Nicknamed "Spanish influenza," it died out quickly the following winter.

When he left the White House in 1988, Ronald Reagan was one of the most popular presidents of the century - and one of the most controversial. A failed actor, Reagan became a passionate ideologue who preached a gospel of lower taxes, less government and anti-communism. Reagan surprised opponents, rising to become a president who always preferred to see America as a "shining city on a hill."

An economic transformation in 1983 secured Reagan’s second term. The episode chronicles his last four years in office—from the loss of his closest advisors and the Iran-Contra scandal to the dawning of the fall of Communism in Europe.

The story of the farmers who came to the Southern Plains of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas dreaming of prosperity, and lived through ten years of drought, dust, disease and death.

The subculture of young hobos that sprang up during the Great Depression.