The Heart of the Nation
This program explores the central values of Japan, Germany, and the U.S. and focuses on what drives each of these societies. America’s hallmark is individualism, Japan’s the preeminence of the group; in America, freedom and diversity are primary...
Magic Bullets
The search for a cure is the greatest epic in the history of science, spanning centuries and continents. This film centers on the story of Sidney Farber, who defied conventional wisdom in the late 1940s to introduce the modern era of chemotherapy. H...
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 ...
Frank Lloyd Wright: Truth Against the World
The first installment in Ken Burns’s compelling documentary on modernist architect Frank Lloyd Wright, this program depicts the early to middle years of Wright’s life and career. With the help of rarely seen archival materials and voice-over por...
The Blind Men and the Elephant
This episode picks up the story in the wake of the declaration of a “war on cancer” by Richard Nixon in 1971 and the search for a cure. Three causation theories emerge linking cancer to viruses, chemicals, and genes that divide the scientific co...
Who Plays God? Medicine, Money, and Ethics in American Health Care
This program explores a variety of life-and-death situations to illustrate the spectrum of highly controversial ethical decisions made on a daily basis in modern American medicine. Hosted by ABC News medical correspondent George Strait, and featurin...
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...
People Like Us: Social Class in America
It's the 800-pound gorilla in American life that most Americans don't think about: how do income, family background, education, attitudes, aspirations, and even appearance mark someone as a member of a particular social class? Class can be harder to...