American History

The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. In 2008, it is still racially segregated. A fascinating investigation into our nation's history and traditions, this acclaimed, award-winning documentary illuminates the complexities of race relations in 21st century America.

Nine years in the making, this documentary film offers a riveting window into the past as seen through the eyes of this historic ship and the survivors of those who sailed on her.

Narrated in part by Roy Scheider, Mystic Voices tells the story of a pivotal event in the early history of the Colonial America that set the stage for the ultimate domination of Native Peoples by European settlers.

New and revised. This documentary examines the current controversy over the issue of slave reparations, addressing the most often voiced objections ("It’s long over," "I had nothing to do with it," "Affirmative Action is enough," etc.) to the claim for financial restitution to the ancestors of slaves for the wealth created by black labor in previous centuries.

The major political, cultural and social issues of each year in the decade are brought vividly to life in this ten-part series.

In 1844 the Oregon Trail was full of farm families moving West, but that summer one party set out on its own, heading into an unknown wilderness and blazing the trail to California.

The major political, cultural and social issues of each year in the decade are brought vividly to life in this ten-part historical series.

Between 1840 and 1870, over 250,000 Americans traveled west by covered wagon on the Oregon Trail. Some claimed land in Oregon; others headed for California gold country. Many went enthusiastically. Others reluctantly left homes, family and friends to face hardship and an uncertain future. Actress Amy Warner vividly presents the experiences and feelings of these pioneers in her one-woman performance based on entries from diaries, letters and memoirs of pioneer women and a young girl who trekked the Oregon Trail.

This documentary is based on the true experiences of U.S. Army privates Edward Herman and Robert Hilliard, who were stationed in Germany at the close of WWII. They discovered the horrendous treatment of displaced Jews in St. Ottilien, a displaced persons camp run by the U.S. military.

This ten-part series on nineteenth and twentieth-century American history uses period graphics and innovative computer animation to make history accessible and exciting for high school, college and adult education students.

The Brave Man tells the story of the Battle of Brooklyn, one of the bloodiest but least-known conflicts of the War for Independence.

Offers a lively mixture of contemporary interviews and archival film footage in a thoughtful examination of the social phenomenon of the `flapper,' the provocative `New Woman' of America's Roaring '20s.

The storytelling tradition of the southern Appalachians comes to life through actress/writer Clarinda Ross's portrayal of four generations of her maternal ancestors.

This video tells the true story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, a 20-year-old woman who, disguised as a man, enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. She initially worked as a male nurse, later disguised herself as a black soldier and a woman refugee and engaged in espionage work behind enemy lines, and fought as a soldier in battles at Antietam and Fredericksburg, among others.

Examines the U.S. Navy's control and use of Vieques, a satellite island and municipality of Puerto Rico, as a military training, exercise and deployment base.

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.