American Experience
TV-PG
8.6
1988
Documentary
TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.
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Episode 15 : Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, Part VI
February. 24,2001
Following the Union victory at Gettysburg, and the surrender at Appomattox, the president tells Mary Lincoln they can find some happiness again. Just days later, he is shot to death.
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Episode 14 : Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, Part V
February. 23,2001
As 1863 begins, Northerners resent fighting to free black slaves; others are furious with Abraham Lincoln for the devastating Union casualties. Mary Lincoln, worried about her husband, spends money compulsively.
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Episode 13 : Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, Part IV
February. 21,2001
Tormented by her grief and losing grip on sanity, Mary Lincoln turns to spiritualists for comfort. Though bowed down with sorrow, her husband never loses sight of the tragedy consuming the nation and issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Episode 12 : Stephen Foster
April. 23,2001
A profile of quintessentially American composer Stephen Foster features interviews with historian Fath Ruffins, biographer Ken Emerson, musicologists Josephine Wright and Dale Cockrell, and modern-day musicians influenced by Foster's work.
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Episode 10 : Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
April. 02,2001
Following the 17-year struggle to free nine blacks falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931. The struggle, which involved communist activists and laid the groundwork for the civil-rights movement, is chronicled involvingly in vintage stills and clips, comments by historians and readings by actors (including Stanley Tucci and Frances McDormand). "In the end, the state of Alabama bowed to reason," says narrator Andre Braugher, "and to exhaustion."
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Episode 9 : Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, Part III
February. 21,2001
The third part recalls 1863, when opposition to the Civil War spread among Northerners: some see the high level of casualties as unacceptable, while others resent fighting to free black slaves. Abraham Lincoln, understandably, becomes anxious. Mary Todd Lincoln, meanwhile, copes by spending money compulsively, and falls into debt as a result. Conclusion. The final 16 months of the Civil War are charted, including the battle at Gettysburg and Abraham Lincoln's battlefield dedication and, just days after the South's surrender at Appomattox, his assassination. Included: Abraham's dedication to bringing the South into the Union; Mary's private wish for revenge.
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Episode 6 : Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind
February. 12,2001
Recalling racial-pride advocate Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), whose grand (some said grandiose) vision included an Africa run by Africans. Garvey's Harlem-based United Negro Improvement Association was more than just a civil-rights group -- it was a business and publishing empire. But it wasn't a well-run one, and his story doesn't have a happy ending (due, in part, to a young Justice Department lawyer named J. Edgar Hoover). Still, says narrator Carl Lumbly, Garvey "changed forever the way black Americans looked at themselves and the world.
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Episode 5 : Streamliners: America's Last Trains
February. 05,2001
Recalling the stainless steel trains that crisscrossed the country in high style (and at speeds of greater than 100 mph) during the 1930s and '40s. The streamliners -- most notably the Union Pacific's "Little Zip" and the Burlington Railroad's Zephyr -- increased railroad ridership (and profits) dramatically, led to a sleek-is-chic design revolution and even offered a measure of psychological uplift during the Depression.
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Episode 3 : Secrets of a Master Builder
October. 30,2000
Charting the life on the Mississippi of James B. Eads (1820-1887), "one of the greatest engineering geniuses of all time," says narrator David McCullough. Eads designed, built and financed ironclad river gunships in the Civil War (helping the Union win it, some say), the first steel bridge over the Mississippi, and sandbar-busting jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi that helped ensure the economic viability of New Orleans and the river itself.
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