American Experience

LBJ's career started in 1938 when he was elected a congressman, one of the youngest ever. He was elected to the Senate in 1948 under a cloud of suspicion. LBJ won by only 87 votes. In 1954, when the Democrats took over the Senate, LBJ became the youngest majority leader ever at age 46. In 1957, LBJ engineered passage of the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction, but the bill had too many compromises and no teeth. By 1960, LBJ felt he was ready for the presidency, but John Kennedy got there first and then picked LBJ as his vice president.

Lyndon Johnson's ascension to the Presidency and the controversial events of his tenure such as the Great Society and the Vietnam War are chronicled here.

A story of the formation and service of the first all-Black military unit in the United States during the Civil War.

The story of the corrupt political dominance of Mayor James Curley and its effect on the city of Boston in the early 20th century.

Documentary of the 1889 disaster caused by a broken dam.

Recounting the historic attack of 1941, including the planning and military outlook of both the United States and Japan at the time.

The rise of the FBI from a minor government bureaucracy to the premiere law enforcement agency in the world under the controversial leadership of J. Edgar Hoover.

Biography of the famed jazz composer and pianist, including rare footage of his performances.

Behind-the-scenes examination of the quiz show craze of the 1950s and how the outcomes of these television shows came to be fixed.

Eugene and Peggy Dennis were members of the Communist Party who moved to the USSR in the 1930s. When they returned to the US, the couple was coerced into leaving their 5-year-old son Tim behind in Moscow. Twenty years would pass before they would see him again. In 1951, Eugene was sent to prison for almost five years by the House Un-American Activities Committee. The family was reunited in 1961 at Eugene Dennis' funeral.

The modern movement to preserve natural wilderness in the United States.

P.T. Barnum launches a scheme to bring entertainment and marvels to the country - something that one day becomes "The Greatest Show on Earth."

Documentary on the late 19th/early 20th century educational effort to teach Native Americans to adopt western cultural ways and abandon their own traditions.