American Experience - Season 7

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Episodes

FDR: The Center of the World (1882-1921)

Season 7Episode 160 min

FDR: The Center of the World (1882-1921)

Polio at age 39, president at age 50. Explore the public and private life of a determined man who steered the United States through two monumental crises: the Depression and World War II. FDR served as president longer than any other, and his legacy still shapes our understanding of the role of government and the presidency. A film by award winning filmmaker David Grubin. This first episode looks at the early life of FDR. Born into a wealthy family, there was little about his youth that would suggest the giant of history that he would become. His entry into state politics and a significant meeting with a woman named Eleanor would change his life and the course of a nation.

FDR: Fear Itself (1922-1933)

Season 7Episode 260 min

FDR: Fear Itself (1922-1933)

FDR: The Grandest Job in the World (1933-1940)

Season 7Episode 360 min

FDR: The Grandest Job in the World (1933-1940)

In episode 3, the subject is FDR's leadership of America during the Great Depression. The nation turned to this son of great wealth for a host of social programs that promised a New Deal for the common man.

FDR: The Juggler (1940-1945)

Season 7Episode 460 min

FDR: The Juggler (1940-1945)

The portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt concludes with his years as preside (1932 until his death in 1945), how he dealt with the Great Depression, and his link with Winston Churchill during World War II.

Telegrams from the Dead

Season 7Episode 560 min

Telegrams from the Dead

For 40 years, a new religion called spiritualism affected the nation as no other ever had. Abraham Lincoln, P.T. Barnum, Frederick Douglass, senators, and scientists argued over the discoveries of the spirit world as revealed through mediums. Congress debated whether to provide $40,000 to research the feasibility of using the new wireless technology to reach the other world. But by 1880, as one spectacular fraud after another was revealed, the movement began to fade.

Midnight Ramble

Season 7Episode 660 min

Midnight Ramble

The little-known story of a black independent film industry that thrived outside of Hollywood and produced close to 500 feature movies for African American audiences between 1910 and 1940. Many race movies tackled some of the difficult social issues that confronted black urban society: alcoholism, crime, morality, class conflict, even racism and lynching, setting the stage for today's independent black cinema movement.

Battle of the Bulge

Season 7Episode 760 min

Battle of the Bulge

The history of World War II's "Battle of the Bulge", when the German army launched a major surprise counteroffensive against the American forces that caught them almost completely off-guard, sweeping away major portions of the front line, pushing deep into the rear areas and causing tens of thousands of casualties before it was finally halted.

One Woman, One Vote

Season 7Episode 860 min

One Woman, One Vote

America's War on Poverty

Season 7Episode 960 min

America's War on Poverty

The programs devised to help the American underclass in the 1960s and their successes and failures.

The Way West: Westward (1845-1864)

Season 7Episode 1060 min

The Way West: Westward (1845-1864)

The Way West: Approach of Civilization (1865-1869)

Season 7Episode 1160 min

The Way West: Approach of Civilization (1865-1869)

The Way West: War for the Black Hills (1870-1876)

Season 7Episode 1260 min

The Way West: War for the Black Hills (1870-1876)

A six-hour documentary of how the West was lost and won, from the time of the Gold Rush in 1848 until after the last gasp of the Indian Wars at Wounded Knee in 1893, when the West was settled, subdued, exploited and incorporated into the American empire. Lakotas, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Poncas, Apaches, Nez Perces and Utes fought back, then watched as everything they had was taken from them, their way of life all but destroyed.

The Way West: Ghost Dance (1877-1893)

Season 7Episode 1360 min

The Way West: Ghost Dance (1877-1893)

A six-hour documentary of how the West was lost and won, from the time of the Gold Rush in 1848 until after the last gasp of the Indian Wars at Wounded Knee in 1893, when the West was settled, subdued, exploited and incorporated into the American empire. Lakotas, Cheyennes, Kiowas, Poncas, Apaches, Nez Perces and Utes fought back, then watched as everything they had was taken from them, their way of life all but destroyed.

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