Soundtrack for a Revolution: Freedom Songs from the Civil Rights Era
On picket lines, in organizational meetings, even in police wagons and jail cells, songs of protest and inspiration helped drive the civil rights movement. Showcasing many of those songs, this stirring documentary explores the history of the era thr...
Frank Lloyd Wright: The Fellowship
The second installment in Ken Burns’ powerful documentary on architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his milieu, this program depicts the middle to final years of Wright’s life and career. With the help of rarely seen archival materials and voice-over ...
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
In March of 1931, two white women stepped off a train in Paint Rock, Alabama, and accused nine black teenage passengers of gang rape. So began the Scottsboro case, one of the 20th century’s most fiery legal battles. This episode of American Experi...
New York, 1919-1931: Cosmopolis
During this episode of New York: A Documentary Film, filmmaker Ric Burns explores how the post-World War I economic boom, the rise of consumer culture, and the birth of new mass media industries fueled the convergence of an incredible array of human...
New York, 1898-1918: The Power and the People
In this episode of New York: A Documentary Film, filmmaker Ric Burns follows the city into the 20th century in the wake of an extraordinary wave of immigration and the birth of the skyscraper. As New York spilled into the new century, the extraordin...
The Civil War: Episode 1—The Cause (1861)
Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this program dramatically evokes the causes of the war. Here are the burning questions of union and states’ rights, John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln, the firing on Fort...
The Civil War: Episode 3—Forever Free (1862)
This program charts the events that led to Lincoln’s decision to set the slaves free. Convinced by July 1862 that emancipation had become morally and militarily crucial to the future of the Union, Lincoln had to bide his time and wait for a victor...
The Civil War: Episode 5—The Universe of Battle (1863)
This program opens with an account of the turning point of war: the Battle of Gettysburg. For three days, 150,000 men fight to the death in the Pennsylvania countryside—an action that culminates in Pickett’s ill-fated charge. This extended episo...