American Experience

History Series / 15 Seasons

American Experience, TV's most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

52m 54s

George H.W. Bush, Part 1 Preview

30s

This biography examines the life and career of our often overlooked 41st president, from his service in WWII and his early career in Texas to his days in the Oval Office, first as vice president to Ronald Reagan, then as the leader who presided over the first Gulf War. The film also explores Bush's role as the patriarch of a political family whose influence is unequaled in modern American life.

Vets Remember: Bob Conroy

3m 42s

Bob Conroy, a Private in the 83rd Infantry during the Battle of the Bulge, describes his experience of the battle in two clips. In the first, he remembers the sound of bullets from German machine gun, and in the second recounts the death of a comrade named Gordon.

Walt Whitman Preview

31s

On a hot summer day in 1855, a 36-year-old writer emerged from an undistinguished printer's shop in Brooklyn, New York, carrying a slim volume of his work. With his book of a dozen poems, Leaves of Grass, he was about to introduce America to a savior.

Minik: The Lost Eskimo Preview

30s

In October 1897, the renowned Arctic explorer Robert Peary returned to New York from his latest Greenland expedition. At the request of anthropologist Franz Boas, he brought with him five polar Eskimos for study at the American Museum of Natural History.

Vets Remember: Ed Stewart

1m 6s

The harrowing stories vets remember about the horrors and desperation they each experienced during the Battle of the Bulge are almost too much to bear. They were fortunate to have survived. And their words are a reminder of just how gruesome war is. Ed Stewart, Sergeant in the 84th Infantry, describes the sound of artillery fire.

Buffalo Bill Preview

30s

In 1886, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show played to over one million people in New York City. Behind the extravaganza was one man -- a meager plainsman turned international celebrity and frontier hero, whose meteoric rise to fame was made possible only by his genius, and his hucksterism. His name was William Cody, better known to the world as Buffalo Bill.

Kit Carson Preview

30s

His exploits on the American frontier inspired dozens of dime novels. But the stories told in these wildly popular books belie the complexities of the real Kit Carson, whose life embodies the contradictions in the story of the American West.

Grand Central Preview

30s

On February 1, 1913, more than 150,000 people eagerly rushed to Grand Central Terminal to gaze at New York City's newest landmark. A marvel of engineering, architecture, and vision, the new Beaux Arts structure on 42nd street housed an underground electric train station that would revolutionize the way people traveled and transform midtown Manhattan.

Oswald's Ghost Preview

30s

A preview of Oswald's Ghost, a film about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 that left a psychic wound on America that is with us still today. Few Americans then or now accept that a lone, inconsequential gunman could bring down a president and alter history. In that breach, a culture of conspiracy has arisen that points to sinister forces at work in the shadows.

Supported by