American History

In the 1930s Jewish intellectuals who escaped Nazi Germany and immigrated to the U.S. faced an uncertain future. Confronted with anti-Semitism at American universities and a public distrust of foreigners, many sought refuge in an unlikely place-traditionally black colleges in the segregated South.

Novelist Peter Quinn hosts this documentary on Irish immigration into New York City in the mid-nineteenth century. The video visits the NYC locations described in Quinn's novel, The Banished Children of Eve, combining historical photos from the 1860's with remnants of the buildings in the 1990's.

In October 1947, screenwriter Gordon Kahn was one of those subpoenaed to appear before the House on Un-American Activities Committee which was investigating `communist subversion' of the film industry.

Tells the story of Joe Hill (1879-1915), a Swedish immigrant to America who became a songwriter, cartoonist and labor organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and whose 1915 execution by the state of Utah for a crime he probably did not commit transformed him into a martyr for the labor movement and an international folk hero.

Examines the history of American intervention in the Philippines following the Spanish American War. A silent movie format with lively ragtime piano music is combined with a dramatically understated narration and excerpts from `newsreels' of the period to reveal the nature of American attitudes toward Third World peoples and cultures.

In 1889, amidst the slums of Chicago's Near West Side, pioneer social worker Jane Addams (1860-1935) opened Hull House to aid the poor, largely immigrant residents of the neighborhood.

The topics include: Sandinistas oust Somoza in Nicaragua; Thatcher elected Prime Minister; Three Mile Island; the Shah flees and Khomeini returns to Iran; palimony; Idi Amin overthrown; Skylab falls; Chinese invasion of Vietnam.

The topics include: Proposition 13; Nazis march in Skokie; Aldo Moro kidnapping; Vietnamese boat people; Jonestown suicides; Rev. Sun Myung Moon; hot tubs; Panama Canal; Bakke case; disco music; Camp David.

The topics include: Sadat and Begin peace talks; Carter inauguration; solar energy; Gary Gilmore execution; punk rock; Son of Sam murders; Elvis dies; NYC blackout; Sylvester Stallone in Rocky; Bert Lance resigns.

The topics include: American Bicentennial; Jimmy Carter elected; Viking spacecraft lands on Mars; mud wrestling; Israeli raid on Entebbe; post-Mao party purge in China; Idi Amin; Legionnaire’s disease; Howard Hughes dies.

The topics include: Saigon falls; Margaret Thatcher elected; Ford assassination attempts; Saturday Night Live; Patty Hearst arrested; UN equates Zionism with racism; Jimmy Hoffa disappears; primal scream therapy; Franco dies.

The topics include: Nixon resigns; gay rights demonstration in NYC; Boston anti-busing demonstrations; sex discrimination; Arctic pipeline; truckers’ strike; streaking; Ford pardons Nixon; Fanne Fox scandal.